Stocks rallied in the afternoon giving Dow a gain of 90, advancers ahead of decliners by 40% & NAZ up 20. Early pessimism gave way to optimism. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) was up 3.49 on its favorable earnings announced after yesterday's close. This kind of news helped bring buyers back into the market. Oil reached a new record at 101, one of the many indicators that all is not well in the economy. Lingering bad loan problems keep nagging at investor's minds. Below, is a quote from one of today's AP stories:
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The Financial Times reported that KKR Financial Holdings LLC, a listed affiliate of U.S. private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., has delayed repayment of billions of dollars of commercial paper for the second time. Commercial paper are short-term bonds companies sell to quickly raise cash; demand for commercial paper began drying up last year, choking the credit markets.
KKR Financial fell 28 cents to $14.25.
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The FED released minutes of its recent meeting when they cut the interest rate by 50 basis points to 3%. It contained something to make about anybody happy. Another way to put it is they're trying to figure out what's going on in financial markets, like the rest of us. They want to help the economy during a slowdown period, but also have to keep an eye on inflation rate. Doing a balancing act is always tricky.
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