Stocks Tumble, Merrill Issues Mortgage Warning, Oil Rallies

  • August 13, 2008
  • David Goodboy

Stocks tumbled for the second straight day as retail sales slump, Deere disappointed and Merrill Lynch issued dire mortgage warning. However, midday bargain hunters pushed the indexes up off their lows with the DJIA closing down -109.51 to 11532.96, the Nasdaq giving back -1.99 to 2428.62, and the broad based S&P 500 index fell -3.77 to 1285.82.

Deere
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Merrill Lynch
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Liz Claiborne
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Exxon Mobil
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Oil soared $3.27 to $116.28/barrel due to a US Government report indicating a decline in Gasoline supplies. Gold advanced strongly $19.30 to $833.90/oz ending eight consecutive losing sessions on speculative buying. The Volatility Index or VIX climbed 1.80% to 21.55 reflecting a slight increase in market decline fears.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -109.51 11532.96

NASDAQ

 -1.99 2428.62

S&P 500

 -3.77 1285.82

Economic
News

Trade Balance (Jun): Consensus -$61.9B, Prior -$59.8

Treasury Budget (Jul): Consensus -86.8B, Prior -$36.4B

Export Price ex-ag. (Jul): Consensus NA, Prior 0.9%

Import Price ex-oil (Jul): Consensus NA, Prior 0.9%

Retail Sales (Jul): Consensus -0.1%, Prior 0.1%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Jul): Consensus 0.5%, Prior 0.8%

Business Inventories (Jun): Consensus 0.6%, Prior 0.3%

Crude Inventories (08/09): Consensus NA, Prior 1614K

Core CPI (Jul): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.3%

CPI (Jul): Consensus 0.4%, Prior 1.1%

Initial Claims (08/09): Consensus 436K, Prior 455K

NY Empire State Index (Aug): Consensus -5.0, Prior -4.9

Net Foreign Purchases (Jun): Consensus $57.5B, Prior $67.0B

Capacity Utilization (Jul): Consensus 79.8%, Prior 79.9%

Industrial Production (Jul): Consensus 0.0%, Prior 0.5%

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Aug): Consensus 62.0, Prior 61.2

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