Stocks Slip, Banks Down, Earning Fears

Stocks slipped today on profit taking and slightly negative words from bank executives. In addition, fear of lagging earnings further weighed on the market with the traditional first quarter earning season starting April 7th. The DJIA slipped back -148.38 to 7776.18, the Nasdaq fell -41.80 to 1545.20 and the S&P 500 dipped -16.92 to 815.94.

Lululemon
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– The athletic yoga wear maker was upgraded by Cowen triggering shares to climb 9% or 0.69 cents to $8.36/share.

Tesoro Group
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– The largest U.S. Western oil company fell 10.51% or $1.72 to $14.64/share.

KB Home
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– Advanced 6.29% or 0.89 cents to $15.05 after the builder reported a less than forecast loss.

Accenture
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– Fell 13.45% or $4.30 to $27.66 after the technology consulting firm lowered its 2009 profit forecasts.

Oil gave back $1.96 to $52.11, Gold fell $16.90 to $925.30 and the VIX fear index gained 1.68% to 41.04.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-148.38 7776.18

NASDAQ

-41.80 1545.20

S&P 500

-16.92 815.94

Economic
News

Existing Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: 4.45M, Prior: 4.49M

Durable Goods Orders (Feb): Consensus: -2.4%, Prior: -5.2%

Durables, Ex-Transportation (Feb): Consensus: -2.0%, Prior: -2.5%

New Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: 300K, Prior: 309K

Crude Inventories (March 20): Consensus: NA, Prior: +1942K

Initial Claims (March 21): Consensus: 650K, Prior: NA

Q4 GDP – Final (Q4): Consensus: -6.6%, Prior: -6.2%

GDP Price Index (Q4): Consensus: 0.5%, Prior: 0.5%

Personal Income (Feb): Consensus: -0.1%, Prior: 0.4%

Personal Spending (Feb): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.6%

Mich Sentiment-Rev (March): Consensus: 56.0, Prior: NA