Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Dow plunges 236

After a nice rally late yesterday, Dow plunged 236 today (mostly in the PM). Advancers were ahead of decliners 2-1 & NAZ pulled back 59. S&P 500 dropped 29 to 1244, by all kinds of measures this index is bleeding badly! Volume on NYSE was 1.4B, below recent 1.6B on select days, but not exceptional. Even with the rally yesterday, NYSE had 215 new lows. Oil was about even after evaluating the weekly inventory report versus Iran flexing its military muscles (firing long range rockets!). Inventories fell almost 6MM barrels, better than forecasts, but that did not carry the day. The Alerian MLP index rose 4 to 269, but off its best levels. First Industrial Realty (FR), an REIT highlighted in my right column, rose 2.90 yesterday (1 point at the close). That gain was pretty much wiped out today.

Alcoa (AA), the first Dow stock to report earnings, reported down earnings yesterday but they beat forecasts. 24 hours later the realization that their news was not that great may have brought on PM selling.

These are getting to be brutal times with no end in sight. General Electric (GE), reports on Fri. Keep in mind, they have a lot of exposure to finance issues. Their earnings & guidance may signal more bleeding is ahead!

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