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Stocks Fall But Log Best Month in 20 Years

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/11293781/1/stock-market-story-oct-31.html

›10/31/11 - 04:59 PM EDT
By Melinda Peer

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks saw heavy selling Monday but still managed to log one of the strongest overall monthly gains in recent years.

Stocks sunk to session lows in the last hour of trading on Monday, the final trading day of October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average delivered the third best monthly percentage gain in its history despite losing 276 points, or 2.3%, on Monday to close at 11,955. For the month, the index gained 9.5%.

The S&P 500 saw its best month in roughly 20 years, gaining 11%, even though it gave back 32 points, or 2.5%, to finish Monday at 1253, and the Nasdaq fell 53 points, or 1.9%, to settle Monday at 2684. The Nasdaq also gained 11% in October.

Stocks were stuck in negative territory all day but accelerated losses late in the session. The weakness may have stemmed from Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's call for a referendum on the recent plan to contain Greece's sovereign debt crisis.

All 30 components on the Dow index finished in the red. Bank of America (BAC), which shed 7.1%, led the losses, while Cisco Systems (CSCO), McDonald's (MCD) and Kraft Foods (KFT) saw the mildest losses.

"We've had a tremendous run the last couple of weeks so investors are getting a little vertigo and taking money off the table," said Paul Nolte, managing director at investment firm Dearborn Partners.

Of the 2.6 billion shares that traded on the New York Stock Exchange, only 18% rose while 80% declined. On the Nasdaq, some 1.8 billion shares changed hands.

News that trading firm MF Global (MF) has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection cast a pall over the banking sector. JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Deutsche Bank (DB) fell 5.3% and 11.5%, respectively. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) was down 4%.‹