Closing bell: Market not bad in face of hard news; GM, F, GE, MSFT, XOM

Posted Dec 23rd 2008 4:24PM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), General Electric (GE), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Exxon Mobil (XOM), S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ

By all rights, the market should have been off more today. Sales of new homes in the U.S. declined to their lowest level in more than 17 years last month, falling 2.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 407,000. And, resales of U.S. single-family homes and condos fell a surprisingly bad 8.6% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million.

A number of companies were hit by downgrades from credit rating agencies led by GM (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F). Stocks in the two car companies were down as much as 15%.

But, in the face of all that, the dip in the markets was very moderate.

DJIA: down 1.18% to 8,919.49.
NASDAQ down 0.71% to 1,521.54
S&P 500 off 0.97% to 863.15.

Some shares did gain, perhaps as investors looked for more safe havens. GE (NYSE: GE), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) all ticked up.

But, the mode of the market was that traders had lost interest ahead of the holidays.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Tags: F, featured, GE, GM, MSFT, XOM