Oil continues to dominate the news. It neared the magic level of 140, then pulled back to to settle at 134.62, up 25¢. The secret is nobody has a clue what's going on the the oil markets, but prices are in the stratosphere which will hurt most economies of developed countries. Speaking of higher prices, corn set another record because of the flooding in the midwest. All food & agricultural related stocks pulled back on the news. Against this background, Dow was down 38 (GE &, MRK & KO hurt the average), advancers ahead of decliners 3-2 & NAZ was up 20. Volume continues low, under 1.2B. Banks rallied on the Lehman (LEH) news, but they pulled back in the late day trading. There were 55 new lows on NYSE. GE & MRK (in the Dow) were the leading new lows in terms of volume. Other major companies setting new lows were Qwest (Q) & Kimberly Clark (KMB). KMB is another member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat list. The Alerian MLP index closed 291.40, up 1.77, getting back above the magic 290-1 area of support.
American International Group (AIG), another Dow stock, the largest insurance company in the world, has a new chief. He will take a few months to learn about their problems (among others, trading at a 10+ year low), then report to analysts in Sep on changes he will make to fix the company. This is the same kind of story we keep getting, another major financial company trying to get it's house in order. I don't know!
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