If you were looking for a solid day from the FOMC, you got it. Today the Federal Reserve is entering a new age with a "Fed Funds Target" in a 0% to 0.25% range. This is a realm of zero percent rates. Housing starts came in at near-record lows and CPI is now about as worrisome as what to do with the $100 bill you get for Christmas. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Top Analyst Downgrades
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was a laggard today after being hit with a Wall Street Journal article about slowing sales trends. This came a day after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock. It is also a fairly late call. Shares were up 0.6% at $95.26 right before the close.
Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was raised to the CONVICTION BUY LIST at Goldman Sachs this morning. Regardless of recent pressures from other analysts and from company policies, this caused a bottom fishing surge. Shares were up almost 12% at $132.15 right before the close.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) reached a pact with Nikko Citi Holdings to unload NikkoCiti Trust & Banking Corp. to Mitsubishi UFJ. Citi was trading up marginally earlier today, but shares were up over 10% at $8.16 right before the close.
FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) was trading higher after a positive research call. The alternative energy player was started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel. Shares were up almost 10% at $3.88 right before the close.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) posted a loss of -$4.97 EPS for the quarter and its revenues came in negative at -$1.58 billion. Despite being worse than estimates, this was deemed as the "throwing in the kitchen sink" quarter and Wall Street cheered as its book value was listed as $98.68. Shares were up 15% at $76.40 right before the close.
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Apple backs AT&T in continuing spat with Verizon
Closing Bell: The recession is still over, still... do you feel it?
