 | MONEY
| The Real Economic Indicators |
| HOME | PRICE GUIDE | BUSINESS | SPORTS | OPINION | SPECIALS | STORE | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
|
|
The Real Economic Indicators - Money Matters for 9/22/05 Don Bravo | 9/22/05
Despite the small bounce in stocks today, the internals showed a radically different picture, as did economic reports and earnings news.
While the Dow, Nasdaq and NYSE were all up marginally, decliners outpaced advancers across the spectrum and new lows outnumbered new highs by a wide and widening margin.
Even after three consecutive days of declines, which ended today, the markets could only muster minuscule gains with hurricane, economic and earnings worries occupying the background.
If anything, today's market action was merely a dress rehearsal for carnage to come. The indices were all severely negative early in the day, but reversed course and held slightly above the break-even line into the close.
This is a market full of risk as economic reports today showed a slowing economy. Unemployment figures released prior to the open were up sharply, with more than 430,000 new claims, the most in more than two years. Though the claims were largely the result of hurricane Katrina, the numbers were large enough to spark an early sell-off.
Making matters worse was the Leading Economic Indicators report by the Conference Board which fell by 0.2 in August, before Katrina.
In company news, troubled airline Delta announced a planned workforce reduction of 9,000 employees worldwide. After the bell, Oracle announced earnings for its fiscal first quarter that showed sales below expectations.
But the real slammer came in after 5:00, when Alcoa, a Dow component, warned that 3rd quarter earnings would be well below analysts' expectations. The company said earnings per share would likely be in a range of 27 to 31 cents. The forecasts were for 44 cents. The warning is just one of many - with more sure to follow - in what could be a troubled earnings season for stocks.
Stocks have hit the wall, so to speak, and Rita hasn't even made landfall... yet.
BY THE NUMBERS
Dow Jones: +44.02; 10,422.05 close
NYSE Advancers: 1453
Nasdaq Advancers: 1435
NYSE New Highs: 134
Nasdaq New Highs: 110
Gold: -2.30; 470.30 close
|