Bad housing numbers did not do much to hurt the market yesterday and good consumer sentiment figures did not help today. The Reuters/University of Michigan poll for late September yielded a figure of 73.5. That is the highest number since early in 2008. The data may mean that consumers believe the recession is over. Traders did not appear to be heartened, and a poor report on durable goods had the prevailing effect on trading all day. The Commerce Department said orders for goods expected to last at least three years fell 2.4%.Here are the unofficial numbers:
DJIA: 9666.48 -40.96 (-0.42%)
NASDAQ: 2090.92 -16.69 (-0.79%)
S&P 500: 1044.44 -6.34 (-0.6%)
The biggest earnings effect on the market was the disappointing numbers from RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM). The company's announcement after the market close yesterday took the handset company's shares down 17% to $69.04. Most other major tech shares spent the day down, including Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Its iPhone is the major competitor for the RIM Blackberry.
The one sector that did show very strong gains was airlines which got a sharp lift from a upgrade of the sector from a UBS analyst. AMR (NYSE: AMR) was up as much as 4% to $8.14 and United (NASDAQ: UAUA) rose as much as 6% to $9.70.
Perhaps the most telling sign that the market does not see a robust recovery of the economy is the oil was down 8% for the week, the biggest drop in two months. to $66 a barrel
The market may tread water next week. Earnings season is around the corner and it may take that catalysts to cause the next big move in the indexes.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
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