Surging Stocks, Financial Lead, Fannie Mae Lowers

  • February 5, 2009
  • Dave Goodboy

Optimism over Obama’s bank rescue plan led to an upward surge in the stock market. Financial shares led the rally due to talk of a change in accounting requirements allowing banks not to recognize billions in damaging write downs. Fannie Mae announced that it is lowering credit score requirements for mortgages which further spurred the rise. The DJIA climbed +106.41 to 8063.07, the tech heavy Nasdaq advanced +31.19 to 1546.24 and the broad based S&P 500 added +13.62 to 845.85.

American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – Led the DJIA higher with an increase of 4.10% or 0.67 cents to $17.03/share on the bank plan optimism.

CIGNA
(
CI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – Climbed 18.09% or $3.26 to $21.28/share after stating the worst is over and its portfolio will likely not sink further.

Western Union
(
WU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – The world’s largest money transfer business sunk 8.94% or $1.23 to $12.53/share upon its 2009 forecast missing analysts estimates.

Life Time Fitness
(
LTM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – Fell 20.28% or $2.87 to $11.28/share after cutting 2009 forecasts on lower revenue and consumer demand for health clubs.

Oil dropped 0.85 cents to $40.93, Gold jumped $12.00 to $914.20 and the fear index VIX dropped 0.27% to 43.73.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +106.41 8063.07

NASDAQ

 +31.19 1546.24

S&P 500

 +13.62 845.85

Economic
News

Personal Income (Dec): Consensus: -0.4%, Prior: -0.4%, Revised From: -0.2%

Personal Spending (Dec): Consensus: -0.9%, Prior: -0.8%, Revised From: -0.6%

Construction Spending (Dec): Consensus: -1.2%, Prior: -0.6%

ISM Index (Jan): Consensus: 32.5, Prior: 32.4

Pending Home Sales (Dec): Consensus: 0.0%, Prior: -4.0%

Auto Sales (Jan): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Truck Sales (Jan): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

ADP Employment Change (Jan): Consensus: -515K, Prior: -693K

ISM Services (Jan): Consensus: 39.0, Prior: 40.1

Crude Inventories (Jan. 30): Consensus: NA, Prior: 6.2M

Initial Claims (Jan. 31): Consensus: 592K, Prior: 588K

Productivity-Prel (Q4): Consensus: 1.0%, Prior: 1.3%

Unit Labor Costs (Q4): Consensus: 3.0%, Prior: 2.8%

Factory Orders (Dec): Consensus: -3.0%, Prior: -4.6%

Average Workweek (Jan): Consensus: 33.3, Prior: 33.3

Hourly Earnings (Jan): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.3%

Nonfarm Payrolls (Jan): Consensus: -500K, Prior: -524K

Unemployment Rate (Jan): Consensus: 7.5%, Prior: 7.2%

Consumer Credit (Dec): Consensus: -$2.3B, Prior: -$7.9B