Closing Bell: Oil and bears, downgrades and charts

Posted Jun 26th 2008 4:35PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: After the Bell, Major Movement, Earnings Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, General Motors (GM), Market Matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Research in Motion (RIMM), Economic Data, Oil, Housing

What the fundamentals couldn't help with, the charts did.... on selling. If you don't want to blame the charts, you could always point to Goldman Sachs downgrades and a myriad of everything else. The DJIA and S&P 500 Index broke early-year support levels. We even saw oil cross above $140.00 per barrel in electronic trading. Thankfully, there's no speculation driving up oil, because the speculators buying say they aren't driving up prices.

Q1 GDP was revised up 0.1% to 1.0%, although the data is now as old as the hills. While existing home sales posted a gain, we saw yet another median housing price drop. If this sounds overly pessimistic, it is simply because this is the sort of day it was. It even feels like Dr. Pangloss took the summer off.

Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA 11,456.92 (-354.91)
S&P500 1,283.42 (-38.55)
NASDAQ 2,321.37 (-79.89)
10YR T-Note 4.033% (-0.082%)
52-Week Lows
Top 10 Analyst Calls

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was the first casualty on a Goldman Sachs downgrade accompanies by a note that the company may cut the dividend or need cash. Those shares were down 6% at $17.70 in today's final minutes.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was downgraded to the Goldman Sachs CONVICTION SELL LIST. Goldman sure must have conviction because shares went to lows not seen since the 1950s. GM shares were down 11% at $11.37 in the final minutes of the day.

Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) warned of a loss on the quarter, and shares tumbled. This one was down 33% at $22.33 in the final minutes today.

Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) fell sharply after earnings guidance failed to live up to estimates ahead. Shares were down by 13% at $123.65 in the final minutes of the day. That's what happens when momentum peaks after a 200% share run.

Tags: c, gm, inthenews, osk, rimm