If you thought holding a rally after a huge day was too much, you weren't too far off the mark. Many people ask over and over if this is a real bear market or not. By a classic definition that may still be up in the air, but this is what every bear market feels like. It also goes to show that you almost want to sell every time you feel good about things and then buy when you feel like everything couldn't get any worse. Hearing traders and market technicians say, "Sell the rallies" is becoming quite commonplace.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:
V) was the largest US IPO ever with its shares soaring after their unprecedented debut yesterday at $44 per share. Investors see promise in electronic payments as shares rose 33% on its IPO debut. Here's the drop for the major averages:
- DJIA 12,099.66 (-293.00; -2.36%)
- S&P 500 1,298.42 (-32.32; -2.43%)
- NASDAQ 2,209.96 (-58.30; -2.57%)
- 10YR-TBond 3.362% (-0.089)
There were many names on
the 52-week lows, but many formerly hot names you wouldn't have guessed. If you look at the major collapse that was seen in the commodity stocks (and commodity prices) that have been major leaders, you'd think they were almost exposed to CDO's too. Oil fell $6.02 to $102.48 per barrel, and that took down
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:
XOM) by more than 4% to $84.43; Gold fell down over $59.00 to $944.70 per ounce late in the day and that took
Barrick Gold (NYSE:
ABX) down 8.7% to $45.25.
The Mosaic Co. (NYSE:
MOS) was also a huge loser as traders took off more of their agriculture trades with a drop of 11% to $97.25
3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:
COMS) dropped over 20% on news that agreement with Bain has
not yet been reached and may break-up. New low of $2.08 from $2.69.
Merrill Lynch and Co. (NYSE:
MER) dropped over 8% today to $42.69 as credit default swap spreads widened and as traders talked
about higher and higher writedowns coming soon. Today, they filed a lawsuit against XL Capital Assurance to meet its credit default swap obligations.
Fannie Mae (NYSE:
FNM) was up almost 9% to $30.90 and
Freddie Mac (NYSE:
FRE) was up almost 13% to $29.36 in response to moves by the government to stabilize the credit markets and economy. Regulations for
reserve requirements were eased to free up $200 billion to add liquidity.
LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ:
ERIC) posted profit decreases and
projects lower cell-phone demand this year. Shares are down by 10% to $17.44.
Nokia (NYSE:
NOK) fell in response by 10%.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-19-2008 @ 6:42PM
NewsVisual said...
Since its rival MasterCard Inc went through an IPO of its own two years ago, raising $2.4 billion, investors have been impatient for Visa to make a similar move. Those with much to gain from the deal include the big investment banks that have been feeling the squeeze thanks to the ongoing credit crisis, a crisis that just claimed the venerable investment-banking firm The Bear Stearns Companies Inc as its most prominent victim. Nearly 40 banks will be involved in the deal. The underwriters include JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Credit Suisse Group , UBS AG, Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.