U.S. Market Wrap-Up for Wednesday 3/24
The futures were lower in pre market trading on concerns regarding a downgrade of Portugal’s debt by the Fitch rating agency. Once the market opened, the averages reversed and pushed towards positive territory. The move was thwarted, however, when the new home sales report for February came in below expectations. The market reacted by moving lower but buyers quickly emerged. The market then began to recover until the DOE inventory report showed crude oil inventories had a larger-than-expected build. The market dipped, but once again buyers emerged. The market continued to trade in this back and forth fashion for the remainder of the day…The Dow fell 52.68 to 10,836.15, the S&P lost 6.45 to 1,167.72, and the Nasdaq slipped 16.48 to 2,398.76…Among the biggest gainers: PMI Group (PMI) surged 22% to $4.44 after Bank of America (BAC) said it will forgive $3B of mortgage principal of troubled homeowners. MF Global (MF) soared 10.7% to $8.10 after Jon Corzine accepted an offer to lead the firm as its CEO. The losers included: Jabil Circuit (JBL) which slumped 10% to $16.51 after reporting disappointing Q2 revenue numbers. Lime Energy (LIME) dropped 10.8% to 4.63 after posting a wider-than-expected Q4 loss. CURRENCY: The dollar closed 2.08% higher on the yen at 92.16 and 1.74% higher on the euro at 0.7503…COMMODITIES: Crude oil closed down 1.30 to 80.61...Natural gas lost 0.03 to 4.10...Gold was lower by 14.90 at 1,088.60…ECONOMIC DATA: Durable goods orders for February were up 0.5% month over month versus a consensus estimate of up 1%. This follows a revised 3.9% increase in January…New durable goods orders, ex-transportation, were up 0.9% month over month… New home sales for February were down 2.2% to a 308,000 annual rate. This was below the consensus estimate of 315K...The MBA purchase index was up 2.7% in the week of 3/19… The EIA petroleum status report showed a build in Crude inventories for the week of 3/19 of 7.25M versus a consensus of 1.65M build. Tomorrow…Jobless Claims, and EIA Natural Gas Report are due…Notable companies reporting Thursday before the opening bell include: Best Buy (BBY), China Automotive (CAAS), ConAgra Foods (CAG), McCormick (MKC), Quigley (QGLY), and Signet Jewelers (SIG). :theflyonthewall
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