Stocks Spiral Down, Dividends Cut, Insurers Surge
Stocks spiraled downward today due to growing earnings concerns and falling oil prices. Bloomberg reported that 66 companies in the S&P 500 either cut or suspended dividends this year with the second quarter pay out dropping 23.4%. This is the largest decline in 40 years per Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at Standard & Poors. Bucking the downward trend, insurance companies rallied on news that the Obama health plan may delay creating a government operated plan. The DJIA dropped -161.27 to 8163.60, the Nasdaq fell -41.23 to 1746.17 and the S&P 500 gave back -17.69 to 881.03.
Aetna
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PowerRating) – Climbed along with others in the insurance sector adding 6.31% or $1.54 to $25.95/share on relief that Obama may delay creating a government health plan.
Discover Financial
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PowerRating) – Fell 10.76% or $1.13 to $9.36/share as the struggling credit card issuer said it would offer $500 million dollars of additional shares to raise capital.
Metro PCS
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PowerRating) – Climbed 3.57% or 42 cents to $12.19/share after UBS restated its buy rating.
Weyerhaeuser
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PowerRating) – The papermaker fell 7.10% or $2.13 to $27.86 upon cutting its dividend from 25 cents to 05 cents/share.
Oil fell $1.12 to $62.57, Gold climbed $4.80 to $929.10 and the fear index VIX spiked 6.38% to 30.85.
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