Stocks Surge; Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart Set the Tone

Stocks surged on Wednesday, ending a four day slump, as positive news from Goldman Sachs, and higher profit at Wal-Mart, helped to raise investor sentiment. However, the market was deeply oversold, as our daily Market Bias indicators showed.

Goldman Sachs
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announced that it doesn’t expect to further write-down its portfolio (read more).

Meanwhile, Bank of America
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said it will take a $3 billion debt write-down in the fourth quarter (read more).

Wal-Mart
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reported an 8% rise in third quarter profit, gave guidance for Q4, and raised its full-year ’08 outlook (read more).

Home Depot
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reported a 27% drop in Q3 profit and lowered its outlook, citing the “softness in the housing market”(read more).

Adobe Systems
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surprised the market yesterday when the company announced that CEO Bruce Chizen is stepping down at the end of November (read more).

Apple
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is in talks with China Mobile aimed at introducing the iPhone in China (read more).

Market Snapshot

Dow

319.54 13307.09

NASDAQ

89.52 2673.65

S&P 500

41.87 1481.05

  NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

1,657,057,090 2,662,850,738

Up Volume

1,540,969,370 2,404,485,717

Down Volume

113,002,670 225,489,010

Advances

2703 2121

Declines

589 866

New Highs

21 38

New Lows

180 165

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change
Recreational Goods, Other
+12.60%
Building Materials Wholesale
-2.03%
Personal Computers
+9.20%
Long-Term Care Facilities
-0.64%
Non-metallic Mineral Mining
+8.02%
Drugs – Generic
-0.39%


Economic
News

Treasury Budget (Oct): Actual -$55.6 Billion, Consensus -$59.0 Billion

Pending Home Sales (Sep): Actual 0.2%, Consensus -2.5%