After a strong start in the morning, stocks pulled back in the PM ending little changed. Volume continues low, under 1.3B (1½B is typical) as it has been for most of the last 2 weeks. Last week was an excellent week in the markets, even junk bond funds held onto strong gains after the big gainer day of Tues.
Today the markets got an early lift with word that Washington Mutual (WM) would get $5B new capital to help it thru the credit crises. WM rose 2.98, although nothing has been finalized yet. After the close, Alcoa (AA), a Dow stock, reported earnings of 44¢, 6¢ below forecasts (after an 8¢ negative adjustment for foreign exchange). In after hours, AA was up 61¢.
Oil is back up to 109, commodities in general remain quite strong which is an ominous sign for future inflation. Investors are still trying to figure if Microsoft (MSFT), a Dow company, & Yahoo (YHOO) are trying to combine. Here are interesting comments from TechTalk.
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