A bad day closed out a bad week as home sales drove off a cliff and concerns over oil prices pushed most airlines and General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to 52-week lows. Even General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) dropped to a one-year level of its own.
Key analyst calls for the day.
DJIA: 12,479.63 -1.16% S&P 500: 1,379.53 -1.32% Nasdaq: 2,444.67 -0.81%
Most stocks moved on bad news and rumor. Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BUD) jumped 7% on news that it might be bought by InBev. Resales of U.S. houses and condos dropped 1% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.89 million from 4.94 million in March.
The only company of any size which posted any good news was The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS). The retailer posted net income of $249 compared to $178 last year. Since most of the improvement was from cost cuts, it does not signal any improvement in retail.
Maybe next week will be better. Or not.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-24-2008 @ 7:29AM
al coholic said...
I've lived through quite a few of these downturns but this one is amazing. Greenville, SC where I live ought to be somewhat insulated from the worst of this slowdown silnce we are home to several large international manufacturers, including Michelon, BMW, 3M who are still selling well overseas.
There also isn't much house flipping here compared to Florida, Vegas, California, and other volatile housing markets. My personal observation is though, that eating out has been dramatically curtailed, many big downtown commercial and multi-use construction projects have been put on hold, and layoffs are rampant.
Since companies use part time and and 1099 guys way more than they used to, the true effect of employment loss has been grossly understated by official unemployment statistics.
This recession is not going away soon.