Today's early gains were met by selling as the Capitol Hill grilling of Tim Geithner took place to decide whether or not he would be confirmed as Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration. But buying the dips finally came after an endless flow of selling. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Top Analyst Downgrades
General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) was hit again today on constant fresh rumors and concerns ahead of earnings, but the good news is that shares did manage to get back into positive territory in the last hour of trade as the market rallied. Shares were up less than 1% at $13.00 shortly before the closing bell.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) might have traded lower if the data was regarded in a vacuum. The company sent a memo to employees noting that it could in fact post a quarterly loss. That would be the first quarter in over 20 years that it lost money. Shares were up about 2% at $13.10 right before the close.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) beat earnings when it posted yesterday after the close. The IT-services and data giant also gave 2009 earnings guidance at a level that shows expectations for 3% growth in 2009. This was a large part of the entire DJIA gains for most of the day. Shares were up 11% at $91.07 right before the close.
Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ: NTRS) surged after the firm showed that at least some banks can get it right. The fiduciary and trust bank posted earnings from operations of $1.39 per share rather than estimates of $0.92 EPS. Shares were up a whopping 27% at $56.05 right before the close.
United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) saw a mixed reaction to its numbers after an earnings report of $1.23 EPS vs. $1.22 estimates. The company said it beat earnings, but some feel that items are not being taken into consideration adequately. Shares were surprisingly down less than 1% at $49.09 shortly before the close.
Cramer on BloggingStocks: China's industrial focus helps lots of U.S. names 
Before the bell: Stocks ready to climb on hopes of continued low rates
Why do we have a weak dollar?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-21-2009 @ 9:43PM
Iridium said...
Once again we see that the market has lost all relevance to the true economy. How does a stock like Bank of America that takes a beating of 30% yesterday go up by 29% today?
Those that purchased stock yesterday are sure happy. The entire system reeks of insider trading and stock manipulation. Did BoA somehow fix all of thier problems in 24 hours? Rumors and speculation of a future bailout somehow can give a company a few million dollars in stock leverage. The past bailout sure did a lot to right the sinking ship.
The price of oil is being completely manipulated. It went up again and is now heading bank to $50 for no apparent reason.
Stock trading must be halted. It should have been done a long time ago before we created over 1000 billionaires over the past 20 years, all who made their fortune through leveraging and playing the manipulated market. They have all stolen wealth from the middle class and enriched themselves.
Wealth cannot be created, it can only be transferred. We have allowed the dishonest to steal trillions of dollars from honest workers and allowed our government to reward thieves. Hard work is no longer the path to a honest fortune. Only through unethical action can you make it to the top. The heads of corporations are so dirty today that they can no longer see the error in their ways. They grew up learning treachery and know no other way.
This market no longer shows any signs of capitalism. It is a contrived, wholly manipulated socialist system. Real numbers have no bearing on the market price, only rumor and rampant speculation.
Every right minded person should withdraw all money from the stock market. Leave trading to the crooks. You are only giving your money to people who control the market. Their goal is to seperate your money from you and put it in thier pocket. It is a fools game. If you did make money trading stocks you did not make your money in an ethical manner. You played the system and ripped off others. You didn't work for that money or add anything to society. You traded a worthless piece of paper and somehow tricked a person into giving you something for it. The stock market is for con artists and crooks. Those that wish to never work a day in thier lives.
Perhaps that is why we no longer create anything of worth in this country anymore. We don't want to get our hands dirty and build something. We'd rather get wealth through nothing. We believe that we are entitled to $300k in home equity every 10 years. That we should all become millionares through our 401ks. When a person saw that thier portfolio generated $30k in one year just by sitting there, why even try to work.
We have allowed corporations to turn into stock producers rather than producers of products of worth. We allowed the need to grow a portfolio supercede the need to keep americans at work. We created monsters of margin who destroyed American manufacturing to raise a P/E in order to manipulate stock.
The socialist stock market is the enemy of the free market and the destroyer of competition. Pretty soon we are going to end up with one bank, one shop, and total government control. It is happening right before our eyes. We need to stop it.