Stocks Fall on Bank Losses, Oil and Gold Up

US Stock Indexes were smacked down across the board today led by further declines in financial issues. The DJIA declined -134.50 to 12503.82, the Nasdaq fell -31.13 to 2491.53 and the S&P500 gave back another -14.71 to 1385.67.

Merrill Lynch MER – fell 2.76% or $1.21 to $42.71 after Standard & Poors lowered its debt rating on the 3 largest Wall Street Firms. Lehman Brothers
(
LEH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Morgan Stanley
(
MS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
were included in the downgrade, both dropping.

Wachovia
(
WB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
dropped 1.68% or .40 cents to $23.40 when the board driven removal of CEO Kennedy Thompson sparked rumors of distress takeover and possible second quarter loss.

Frontier Oil
(
FTO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
shot up 9.03% or $2.72 to $32.83 after analysts changed its ratings from “hold” to “buy”.

Arcodia Therapeutics
(
ACOR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rocketed 31.26% or $6.74 to $28.30 after announcing good news about an experimental multiple sclerosis pill.

Oil climbed .37 cents to $127.72/barrel, Gold added $5.50 to 897.00 and the VIX jumped 11.27% to 19.84 during the session.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-134.50 12503.82

NASDAQ

-31.13 2491.53

S&P 500

-14.71 1385.67

Economic
News

Construction Spending (Apr): Actual -0.4%, Consensus -0.6%

ISM Index (May): Consensus 48.5, Prior 48.6%

Auto Sales (May): Consensus NA, Prior 4.9M

Truck Sales (May): Consensus NA, Prior 5.6M

Factory Orders (Apr): Consensus -0.1%, Prior 1.3%

ADP Employment (May): Consensus -30K, Prior 10K

Productivity-Rev. (Q1): Consensus 2.5%, Prior 2.2%

ISM Services (May): Consensus 51.0%, Prior 52.0%

Crude Inventories (05/31): Consensus NA, Prior -8883K

Initial Claims (05/31): Consensus 372K, Prior 372K

Average Workweek (May): Consensus 33.7, Prior 33.7

Hourly Earnings (May): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.1%

Nonfarm Payrolls (May): Consensus -60K, Prior -20K

Unemployment Rate (May): Consensus 5.1%, Prior 5.0%

Wholesale Inventories (Apr): Consensus 0.4%, Prior -0.1%

Consumer Credit (Apr): Consensus $7.0B, Prior $15.3B