Stocks Hit Hard, Fed May Step In, Oil Hits Record

Stocks were down across the board today on financial sector woes and exploding oil prices. The DJIA ended down -128.48 to 11100.54 paring greater losses, prior to reports that the Fed was stepping in to assist Freddie and Fannie mortgage concerns. The Nasdaq gave up -18.77 to 2239.08 and the S&P 500 fell another -13.90 to 1239.49.

Lehman Brothers
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continued its decent today falling another 16.18% or $2.80 to $14.50/share on additional Freddie and Fannie mortgage worries as Lehman owns substantial bonds in the mortgage concerns.

Chesapeake Energy
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climbed 3.12% or $1.92 to $63.50/share after Mad Money host Jim Cramer recommended the company.

Fannie Mae
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collapsed another 23.03% or $3.04 to $10.16/share to a 17-year low after falling as much as 49% on Paulson’s statements.

Hercules Corp
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jumped 25.87% or $4.31 to $20.97/share after agreeing to a buy out offer from Ashland.

Oil climbed $3.28 to $144.93/barrel and gold ended the day up $18.60 to $960.60.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-128.48 11100.54

NASDAQ

-18.77 2239.08

S&P 500

-13.90 1239.49

Economic
News

Pending Home Sales (May): Consensus -2.8%, Consensus 6.3%

Wholesale Inventories (May): Consensus 0.6%, Prior 1.3%

Consumer Credit (May): Consensus $7.0B, Prior $8.9B

Crude Inventories (07/05): Consensus NA, Prior -1982K

Initial Claims (07/05): Consensus 395K, Prior 404K

Export Prices ex-ag (Jun): Consensus NA, Prior 0.4%

Import Prices ex-oil (Jun): Consensus NA, Prior 0.5%

Trade Balance (May): Consensus -$62.2B, Prior -$60.9B

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Jul): Consensus 55.5, Prior 56.4

Treasury Budget (Jun): Consensus $33.0B, Prior $27.5B