Stocks Roller Coaster, Banks Stress Test, Gold Down

A topsy turvy roller coaster ride today in the stock market. The market dropped hard during Bernanke’s speech wherein he appeared nervous at times, then rocketed upward into positive territory soon after the Fed Chief finished the talk. Word of banks being given 6 months to raise capital then being subjected to a so called “stress test” prior to government cash infusions helped lift shares off the lows. Stocks dropped back into negative territory across the indexes in the final 30 minutes of trade as pessimism triggered by negative economic news slipped back into the marketplace. The DJIA ended the day down -80.05 to 7270.89, the tech heavy Nasdaq dropped -16.40 to 1425.43 and the broad based market barometer S&P 500 slipped -8.24 to 764.90.

DineEquity
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– Advanced 13.05% or 0.77 cents to $6.67/share as the owner of Applebee’s and IHOP beat analysts earning estimates by 0.14 cents/share.

First Solar
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– Was hit hard, falling 21.45% or 29.51% to $108.02 after the solar module maker said it would miss analysts sales estimates.

Herbalife
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– The multilevel nutritional marketing company fell 20.19% or $3.70 to $14.62/share upon forecasting 2009 earnings missing analysts estimates.

JM Smucker
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– Fell 5.96% or $2.45 to $38.69/share after advising it may miss analysts 2009 earning estimates.

Gold dropped $3.30 to $966.20, Oil climbed $2.54 to $42.40 and the fear index VIX fell 1.80% to 44.67.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-80.05 7270.89

NASDAQ

-16.40 1425.43

S&P 500

-8.24 764.90

Economic
News

S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index. (Dec): Consensus: -18.25%, Prior: -18.18%

Consumer Confidence (Feb): Consensus: 36.0, Prior: 37.7

Bernanke Monetary Semi Policy Report: Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Existing Home Sales (Jan): Consensus: 4.81M, Prior: 4.74M

Crude Inventories (Feb 20): Consensus: NA, Prior: -138K

Durable Goods Orders (Jan): Consensus: -2.3%, Prior: -2.6%

Durables, Ex-Tran (Jan): Consensus: -2.0%, Prior: -3.6%

Initial Claims (Feb 21): Consensus: NA, Prior: 627K

New Home Sales (Jan): Consensus: 329K, Prior: 331K

GDP-Prel. (Q4): Consensus: -5.4%, Prior: -3.8%

Chain Deflator-Prel (Q4): Consensus: -0.1%, Prior: -0.1%

Chicago PMI (Feb): Consensus: 34.0, Prior: 33.3

Mich Sentiment-Rev (Feb): Consensus: 56.5, Prior: 56.2