Closing Bell: Bulls win small victory; Bears win 3 quarters in a row

Posted Jun 30th 2008 4:26PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Merck and Co (MRK), MBIA Inc (MBI)

The good news is that we saw a Monday buying interest spree after a horrible prior week. Sellers did come in late in the day after the markets traded higher earlier, putting the markets on the verge of a negative day. The bad news is that today was the end of the quarter and it looks like we have now finished down three consecutive quarters in the U.S. stock market. Whether or not it is a bear market seems to depend on whom you consult, but things are tough for the public investor right now. This morning oil was around $143.00 on fresh Iran-Israel tensions and here were the unofficial closing bell levels today:

DJIA 11,338.78 (-7.73)
S&P500 1,279.21 (+0.83)
NASDAQ 2,292.98 (-22.65)
10YR T-Note 3.979% (-0.011%)
TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) did finally see a bounce after a research analyst came out showing anecdotal evidence that the current discount to the market is very close to major inflection points. Shares of GE were up 1.7% at $26.69 in today's final minutes.

MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) was down more than 10% on liquidity concerns, but the company's stock rallied sharply and shares were up 1.4% at $4.23 in today's final minutes after the company refuted the bad reports out there.

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) finally saw another winning day after a competing cervical cancer vaccine was delayed by the FDA. Merck shares were up 2.4% at $37.86 in today's final minutes of trading.

Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) was a disappointment today after the company said it would stop development of its Alzheimer's treatment after results failed to show benefits. The stock was down almost 5% at $45.63 on huge volume of 13 million shares in today's final minutes.

Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) saw shares hit by more than 7% down to $1.94 late in the day after the company outlined its first round of savings and forecasts for the merged satellite radio players.

Tags: alzheimers, mbia, myriadgenetics, oil