Nike (NYSE: NKE) has thus far navigated this downturn exquisitely. It has maintained sales overseas, in particular in Asia. Nike's legendary supply-chain mastery and inventory management skills have likewise served it very well. So it was a shock when the shoe giant announced Wednesday that future orders had dropped by 12%, according to Bloomberg. Bummed out investors bid down Nike share's by nearly 5% in after-hours trading.

Granted, Nike faced difficult comps. During the Beijing Olympic Games last summer Nike togs were selling like hotcakes around the globe. And a chunk of the reduction in order value came due to currency fluctuations. But it's hard to deny that this quarterly earnings announcement was a bleak reminder that the "green shoots" may be more of a Washington creation than a reality in the global economy.

The market spent the day as it has many a Friday in the summer: slowing going no where.

The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index showed a very modest increase in June up to 69, from 68.7 in May. The same survey showed that expectations for six months from now actually dropped.

Oil and gas prices still dominated the headlines. Oil still hovers around $72 and the average price of gas rose for the 45th consecutive day to $2.63. The has to rattle consumers who have precious little discretionary income as it is.

In yesterday's online edition of The Wall Street Journal, it was reported that MBIA (NYSE: MBI) is facing lawsuits from a group of 18 different financial institutions. The lawsuit was filed in New York State court and includes the likes of J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), and UBS (NYSE: UBS).

These banks are claiming that the way MBIA split its municipal bond insurance business earlier this year was "an unlawful attempt to escape" its contractual obligations to cover losses from mortgage securities. In addition to the split earlier this year, MBIA shifted $5 billion to a municipal bond insurance company.

Here are the unofficial closing numbers:

Dow 8,169.00 -16.73 (-0.20%)
S&P 500 872.42 -1.22 (-0.14%)
Nasdaq 1,715.10 +3.16 (0.18%)

In any normal universe, the market would have collapsed on news that unemployment went to 8.5%. To make matters worse, it is obviously going much higher.

The market shrugged all of that off and went nowhere. Most financial stocks were up. A number of tech and telecom stocks were down. Whatever bump the G-20 gave the market seems to have dissipated in a day.

The numbers:

DJIA:Dow 8,017.59 +39.51 (0.50%)
S&P 500 842.47 +8.09 (0.97%)
Nasdaq 1,621.87 +19.24 (1.20%)

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After being down 25% for the year in early March, the NASDAQ is back to even for 2009. It is an extraordinary rally which shows that tech can still dig the market out of a funk. The fact that shares in companies like Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are up for the year helps.

For the day:

Dow 7,908.55 +158.74 (2.05%)
S&P 500 832.72 +18.84 (2.31%)
Nasdaq 1,587.00 +58.05 (3.80%)

Athens-based shipping issue DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) announced Monday that it will release its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2008 earnings results after the close of trading in New York today, March 24. Ahead of the report, buy-to-open call volume has been consistently heavy on the beaten-down stock.

During the past five days, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have bought to open 30,875 calls on DRYS, compared to jut 9,697 puts. In other words, bullish bets have been three times more popular than their bearish counterparts.

After days of rallying, the market decided that bank stocks had gone much too far. With no first quarter earnings out, the fact is that the current quarter could still be tough. Financial shares could still reset lower. The market reacted accordingly.

The unofficial numbers for the day broke out like this:

Dow 7,278.38 -122.42 (-1.65%)
S&P 500 768.54 -15.50 (-1.98%)
Nasdaq 1,457.27 -26.21 (-1.77%)

TOP ANALYST CALLS

In my previous post on the Financial Stability plan presented by the Obama administration, I mentioned the dangers involved with dealing with some of the sharpest players on Wall Street. I used the analogy of not knowing who the sucker is when you sit down at the poker table because it turns out to be you!

It turns out that the taxpayer bailout money was used to pay bonuses of about $450 million to a small group of employees at the business unit that lost $40.5 billion last year at AIG and caused the crisis in the first place. Apparently, this appears to be a contractual obligation of AIG which cannot be abrogated.

Today was one of those strange Friday sessions where you just never felt stable. Interestingly enough, the 8.1% unemployment rate ended up moving the market up briefly, but only briefly. Most of the day was spent in red numbers with a rally that brought the markets back to a flat close.

The focus is still on what is coming out of Washington D.C. and just how long and how deep this recession is going to be.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 6,626.94 +32.50 (+0.49%)
S&P 500 683.39 +0.84 (+0.12%)
Nasdaq 1,293.85 -5.74 (-0.44%)
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