Stocks Sink, Crude Crashes, GE Cut

Stocks sunk today on stalwart General Electric having its credit rating outlook cut to negative by Standard & Poors and falling economic indicators. Crude oil fell dramatically due to weak demand despite OPEC’s efforts to curtail production. The DJIA sunk -219.35 to 8604.99, the Nasdaq gave back -26.94 to 1552.37 and the broad based S&P 500 dropped -19.14 to 885.28.

Prudential
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– Climbed 5.35% or $1.56 to $30.74/share as insurers rallied due to a proposed loosening of regulations.

General Motors
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– Fell 16.26% or 0.71cents to $3.66 leading the DJIA lower due to the slowest auto sales in 26 years and uncertainty about the bailout.

Micron Tech
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– Soared 20.28% or 0.44 cents to $2.61/share after a competitor announced plans to cut chip production.

Virgin Media
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– Added 2.51% or 0.11 cents to $4.50/share after the second largest pay TV company in the UK named Jerry Elliott as the new CFO.

Oil collapsed $3.84 to $36.48, gold fell $7.90 to $860.60 and the VIX fell 5.02% to 47.34.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-219.35 8604.99

NASDAQ

-26.94 1552.37

S&P 500

-19.14 885.28

Economic
News

NY Empire State Index (Dec): Consensus -27.0, Prior -25.4

Net Foreign Purchases (Oct): Consensus NA, Prior $66.2B

Capacity Utilization (Nov): Consensus 75.9%, Prior 76.4%

Industrial Production (Nov): Consensus -0.5%, Prior 1.3%

Building Permits (Nov): Consensus 700K, Prior 708K

Core CPI (Nov): Consensus 0.1%, Prior -0.1%

CPI (Nov): Consensus -1.3%, Prior -1.0%

Housing Starts (Nov): Consensus 730K, Prior 791K

FOMC Policy Statement: Consensus NA, Prior NA

Crude Investories (Dec 13): Consensus NA, Prior NA

Initial Claims (Dec 13): Consensus NA, Prior NA

Leading Indicators (Nov): Consensus -0.5%, Prior -0.8%

Philadelphia Fed (Dec): Consensus -40.0, Prior -39.3

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