Today was yet another lower trading day straight from the start. If we get another couple days in a row like that, we'll start hearing "I owe, I owe, off to sell stocks I go." Retail sales were expected to be dismal, which they were. And the Beige Book held very little promise or hope. Here are today's numbers:
Top Analyst Downgrades
Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) was weak all day after being noted in the WSJ as having cut about 500 positions in its North American sales and consulting businesses. Shares were down almost 5% at $16.33 late in the day.
CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) approved an 11% increase to its quarterly dividend despite the company having cut its 2009 guidance just last week, Shares, though, fell with the market and were down almost 3% at $25.93 late in the day.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) fell on reports that it may need to take a very large Q4 writedown on its investment in Russian oil major Lukoil Holdings due to weakness in the crude oil market. It was down 4% at $49.13 late in the day.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) better get its act together. The soon to be ex-supermarket in the financial sector has been down each day this week. Questions persist about Pandit's future as CEO and how much more money Citi needs. Shares were down 22% at $4.56 late in the day.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) saw another harsh day as traders sold most conglomerates and those tied to financials. Shares were down 5.4% at $14.12 late in the day.










