Today was one of those of those days that started out weak, and ended up that way as well. Wholesale inventories were down again for the 10th month in a row. Many analyst calls and a late summer breather are also to blame for the selling after we have seen such a strong summer rally. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:DJIA: 9,241.45 (-1.03%)
NASDAQ: 1,969.73 (-1.13%)
S & P 500: 994.35(-1.27%)
Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was hit today on an analyst call from Rochdale's Dick Bove, who said the settlement being held up by a judge is bad for banks. Shares were down 4% at $15.98 late in the day.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was sued by a group of seven Norwegian municipalities and the bankruptcy estate of Terra Securities. This was a fraud action in New York against Citigroup alleging misrepresentation when it was sold derivative securities in 2007. Shares were down 5% at $3.72 at the end of the trading day.
CIT Group, Inc. (NYSE: CIT) was among today's most active volume alerts after delaying its 10-Q filing and the note is out that the company may have to file for bankruptcy if it cannot get new financing or complete a debt tender.
Helicos BioSciences (NASDAQ: HLCS) was a big winner today. The company is on the quest for the $1,000.00 genome decoding. Shares were up 41% at $1.01 at the end of the day.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) had two issues. First is that it was among 5 key tech stocks at critical chart levels. Second it was criticized over how tricky its Razorfish sale to Publicis will be. The criticism is that Microsoft is now dealing with Publicis while it is close to its competitor WPP Group and while Publicis already has a strategic partnership with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Shares were down 0.77% at $23.34 at the end of the trading day.
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