This was yet another tiring day in the markets, despite the ever-falling price of oil back to under $70.00 per barrel. The sad thing is that the selling started this morning and only grew worse throughout the day. There was no single catalyst. The fears are over the coming recession and weak earnings, but that is about as new as the sun rising in the East every morning. The death being witnessed in commodities and commodity-related stocks is only exacerbating the fears that the global recession is going to be much deeper than projections were indicating. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
- DJIA - 8,519.21 (-5.69%)
- S&P500 - 896.78 (-6.10%)
- NASDAQ - 1,615.75 (-4.77%)
- 10YR T-Note 3.618% (-0.085%)
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is trading down over 1% after the telephone giant posted lower earnings. Its earnings report came in at $0.67 EPS vs. the $0.71 estimate, despite adding 2 million wireless subscribers and despite activating 2.4 million 3G iPhone activations. Shares were down 8% at $23.61 in today's final minutes.
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) managed to beat earnings handily after a royalty payment made earnings hit $0.54 EPS vs. $0.44 estimates. The company's lower revenue guidance and lower margin forecasts were significantly better than rival Texas Instruments and were better than what many traders were expecting. Shares were still up almost 6% at $14.62 in today's final minutes.
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) joined the list of tech stocks hitting the new 52-week lows today. Shares were down over 8% at $34.74 in today's final minutes.
http://www.247wallst.com/2008/10/h-p-joins-the-c.html
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) showed that despite tough times it has a winning combination. The fast food giant posted earnings of $1.05 EPS vs. $0.98 estimates, which is roughly a 25% gain year over year. The market weakness took it down by more than 1.5% to $54.29 by today's final minutes, but it had been positive most of the day.
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is feeling the pain now that Samsung has withdrawn its offer to acquire the flash memory maker after saying that its offer price is too high compared to what the company is really worth in today's climate. Shares were down 32% at $9.95 in today's final minutes.
Nuclear power is on the comeback trail
Apple backs AT&T in continuing spat with Verizon
Closing Bell: The recession is still over, still... do you feel it?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-22-2008 @ 4:11PM
JDSalinger12 said...
Another tough day for the market. We all know we will continue to have a number of bad days with a few rebound days. Bottom line: the US markets are too unstable in the near future. Investors really need to make changes to their investing strategy if they have not already, especially since the market has not hit the bottom yet.. This means move money into T-bills and municipal bonds and invest some overseas to guard as a hedge against the coming inflation of the US dollar. I use offshore bank accounts for this and they have helped me. If you would like to learn more, feel free to visit my site.
Best,
Frank Miller
http://www.theoffshorebankaccount.com
10-22-2008 @ 6:36PM
End of story said...
The economy is being 'propped up' until the election. Stock up on water and non perishables for a transition is about to take place. A new currency is around the bend. Don't go crazy.....just provide for your family for one to two months of supplies! There may be a run on the supermarkets just like the stock market!!
10-22-2008 @ 6:38PM
Kent said...
I checked T-Bills after I pulled out of equities couple of weeks ago and I was shocked at the the rate: 0.8% APY for 7 months. I'll park it in CD's giving the best yield for 6 months or so before deciding what to do.