Monday, March 31, 2008

Stocks end a dismal quarter on up note

Stocks had a very rough quarter, Dow fell 100 points while NAZ slipped 373 , not a pretty picture. Banks & financials led the way down, although techs also got punished & they generally have minimal exposure to credit problems. However, today they finished on an up note. Dow was up 46, NAZ up 18 & advancers ahead of decliners 3-2. Volume was light (not a lot of conviction in the moves) as it has been during the last week. Sec Paulson's plan for the markets got a lot of attention, but tough to figure out. It may be needed, but more gov intervention is generally not viewed as favorable to markets. It should be kept in mind that this is just a plan which has to go to Congress. In an election year, they will have plenty of thoughts about changes. Plus little major legislation gets passed in an election year. Tomorrow we'll be back to looking at other news releases.

Merck (MRK) had the biggest news release today. Their Vytorin drug (marketed with Schering-Plough) was shown not to be effective for people needing help lowering cholesterol. Both stocks sold off big, MRK down 6.56 which may be worth 25 points on the Dow. Oil dropped 4.04 to 101.58. However it's price rose about 6% in the quarter, a much better investment than most stocks. The dollar continues weak. The Euro has advanced to $1.58, a price not contemplated just a few months ago. Tomorrow Q2 begins but the credit crisis, etc. continues.

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