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Dramatic Turnaround: 600-Point Swing for Dow Don't blink or you might miss a huge sell-off or an even bigger rally in this very turbulent market. Wall Street turned a 300-point plunge on the Dow this morning into a 300-point jump this afternoon as traders evidently found stocks at a discount after a series of sell-offs in recent days. Today’s Market The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 298.98 points, or 2.50% to 12270.17, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 28.11 points, or 2.14% to 1338.61 and the Nasdaq Composite Index picked up 24.14, or 1.05%, to 2316.41. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 rose 13.09, or 1.38%, to 959.72. Today's trading on the New York Stock Exchange set an all-time record for the highest volume, with more than 7.44 billion shares changing hands between floor and electronic trading combined, the NYSE said. Similar to yesterday's action, the market found its strength today from some of the weakest stocks over the past few months. The battered financials led the comeback effort, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 45.72, +4.86, +11.89%) jumping 11% and Citigroup (C: 26.36, +1.96, +8.03%) up 8%. Also, struggling homebuilders such as Lennar (LEN: 14.94, +1.79, +13.61%) and KB Home (KBH: 22.88, +2.77, +13.77%) saw big gains today as well. The comeback was a function of a market that has taken huge hits so far this year, with the Dow more than 8% in the red and the Nasdaq even lower year-to-date. "Guys got tired of selling. Without question things have been oversold. It was only a matter of time until there was a significant bounce in the markets," said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. Wall Street opened this morning with a big 260-point plunge on the Dow then pared most of its losses. The market then sold-off for a second time, placing the Dow 320 points in the red and the Nasdaq Composite more than 3% lower. The market may have been aided by news that New York regulators are meeting with banks about stabilizing struggling bond insurers, according to Dow Jones Newswires Selling in tech stocks today was triggered by Apple (AAPL: 139.07, -16.57, -10.64%), which posted a disappointing 2008 earnings outlook after yesterday's closing bell. Shares of Apple plunged about 12% today. That pessimistic outlook had the Nasdaq Composite beginning the day in "bear market" territory -- meaning the index was more than 20% off of its 12-month highs. Nasdaq's 122.6 swing was the largest high to low swing since October of 2001, according to the index's market intelligence desk. In the pre-open trading, stocks tanked following a sell-off in Europe, with the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 losing nearly 5%. The European losses were triggered by hawkish comments from monetary policy makers there regarding future interest rate cuts. "Until confidence gets restored in the marketplace we can look forward to some rocky weeks ahead,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners. “With the Fed’s action and an economic stimulus package almost certainly to be on its way, you would think the market would begin to look forward and discount.” The most surprising part of today’s earlier sell-off is that Wall Street got what it wanted most yesterday: an aggressive 0.75% interest rate slash from the Federal Reserve. That rate cut eased some fears and helped the market avoid enormous losses that some had predicted. Commodity prices fell during today's trading. Oil fell $2.20 to settle at $87.01 a barrel. Gold fell $4.70 to $885.60 an ounce. Corporate Movers eBay (EBAY: 28.94, +1.81, +6.67%) beat the street with earnings of 45 cents a share, topping estimates of 41 cents. Despite the 54% jump in fourth-quarter earnings, shares of eBay were falling in after-hours trading on a disappointing revenue forecast for the first quarter. Also, the online auction site confirmed that CEO Meg Whitman is retiring. Pfizer (PFE: 22.86, +0.63, +2.83%) picked up 2% after posting a 70% plunge in fourth-quarter earnings. The pharmaceutical Dow company beat the street with earnings excluding items of 52 cents a share. Pfizer also raised its 2008 earnings and sales outlook. Motorola's (MOT: 10.01, -2.31, -18.75%) plummeted about 29% to a new 52-week low this morning. Its fourth-quarter income fell 84% to $100 million, or 4 cents a share, from $623 million, or 25 cents a share, a year ago. The company attributed the figures to poor cell phone sales. Analysts expected earnings of 13 cents a share on revenue of $9.6 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Also, Motorola sees a first-quarter loss of between 5 and 7 cents a share, which is better than analysts had forecasted. United Technologies (UTX: 70.98, +3.74, +5.56%) said its fourth-quarter earnings jumped 23% led by its aerospace business. The industrial giant and Dow component earned $1.08 a share in the period, better than the 87 cents it earned a year ago and $1.06 analysts polled by Thomson Financial had estimated. Southwest Airlines (LUV: 12.76, +0.78, +6.51%) said its fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled because the airline hedged its fuel costs. Net income for the airline was $111 million, or 15 cents a share, compared to $57 million, or 7 cents a share, from the same period last year. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 10 cents a share. General Motors (GM: 25.70, +2.05, +8.66%) announced today it sold 9.4 million vehicles around the world in 2007, a rise of 3% from 2006. Fourth-quarter worldwide sales rose 4.8% to 2.3 million vehicles and GM sold 1 million vehicles in China in 2007. GM’s sales report puts the automaker in a virtual tie with Toyota (TM: 99.25, +2.34, +2.41%) for global 2007 sales. Ford (F: 6.30, +0.37, +6.23%) plans to cut as many as 11,000 union jobs and 2,000 salaried positions, according to The Wall Street Journal. Ford will announce later this week it has reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers union on a new set of buyouts, the Journal reported citing anonymous sources. Conoco Phillips (COP: 71.73, +0.55, +0.77%) announced a 37% rise in fourth-quarter profit. Conoco earned $2.71 a share, topping the $2.38 analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for. Sallie Mae (SLM: 18.69, -0.33, -1.73%) fell 10% to its lowest level since 2000 before coming back later in the day. The student loan lender announced a loss of 36 cents a share in the fourth quarter. That is much lower than the 74 cents a share the company made last year. Also, the Sallie Mae said the SEC is investigating insider stock sales made in December, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Texas Instruments (TXN: 30.30, +1.32, +4.55%), the mobile chip maker, jumped 4% after it reported it earned 54 cents a share, beating estimates of 52 cents. Also, Texas Instruments sees first-quarter earnings above the mean estimates from analysts polled by Thomson Financial. However, an analyst at Citi cut the stock to "hold" from "buy." Abbott Labs (ABT: 57.97, +0.48, +0.83%) rose 1% in the red despite swinging to a fourth-quarter profit. The health care company earned 77 cents a share, less than analysts polled by Thomson Financial were estimating. World Markets Foreign stock exchanges have come more into focus in recent days amid sell-offs and big rallies. The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50, a index tracking the 50 largest companies of Europe, fell 175.69 points, or 4.68%, to 3577.99. The FTSE 100, London's benchmark index, dropped 130.80, or 2.28%, to 5609.30. France's CAC 40 Index fell 205.78 points, or 4.25%, to 4636.76 and Germany's DAX dropped 330.26, or 4.88%, to 6439.21. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index soared overnight, gaining 256.01 points, or 2.04%, to 12829.06. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 2332.54, or 10.72%, to 24090.17. Data Dump Retail sales rose last week by 0.7%, according to Johnson Redbook. For the month, retail sales are up 0.8% compared to a year ago.. |
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Originally Posted by forwardone
Well done on your profits okosh. Once stocks nosedive far enough there are always those with the courage to buy at hopefully the right time when they are at the bottom of the cycle.
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