Browse > Home / Market Recap / Tuesday’s Market Recap (11/11/08)

Tuesday’s Market Recap (11/11/08)

Posted on: November 11, 2008 - Email Article - Printable Version

Hassan Chaudhry

About the Author:

Markets suffered a second straight day of losses, still feeling the effects of several key companies reporting loads of uninspiring new yesterday. Even among news that the government is planning significant aid effort for the mortgage industry which has truly been at the heart of this current crisis, markets lost another 2% on Tuesday.

The Dow closed about 180 points down, and since the beginning of the year it has been down 35%. The S&P 500 closed at just under 900, after falling 20 points on the day. The biggest percentage hit came from the Nasdaq which lost 2.22%, and closed at 1580. After signals from a few important consumer discretionary stocks pointed toward harder times, the markets followed suit with selling. No government data was reported today, and the bond markets were closed for Veterans Day.

Shares of Goldman Sachs [GS: 88.78, +2.02 (+2.33%)] climbed $3.47 cents today after comments made by CEO Lloyd Blankfein at conference in New York City Sponsored by Merrill Lynch. Basically stating that his firm is “as well positioned as any” financial firm, and that the “near term environment looks challenging.” Goldman, which is now a bank holding company, has seen its share price hit tremendously hard in the past year due to the collapse of Wall Street brethren such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

In other corporate news American Express [AXP: 19.95, +0.62 (+3.21%)] has now become a bank holding company as well after receiving approval from the Fed late last night. Thus another hand will be allowed to reach into the Treasury’s $250 Billion bank rescue plan. Though shares did trade down on Tuesday, even after the news.

Oil prices dipped below $60 today, to finally close at $59.33. This only a day after the Saudi’s hinted at their own supply cuts, and only a few weeks after OPEC announced production cuts of 1.5 million barrels per day. Another production cut is expected to come from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, when they meet next month in Algeria. It could play out to be a more drastic message sent by OPEC to the world, after a swing and a miss with their initial cuts after the emergency meeting in Austria. Today’s closing price marks the lowest since March of 2007.

Japanese markets fell as well, as the Nikkei fell 3%, and in Europe Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 3.57%. The dollar gained slightly on the Euro, and gold prices dipped to $731.

-Hassan Chaudhry

Disclosure: The fund the author is associated with is long GS