| Index | Last | Change | % Chg |
| DJ Industrials | 13543.4 | -51.7 | -0.38% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 2795.18 | -15.2 | -0.54% |
| S&P 500 | 1502.17 | -7.48 | -0.50% |
| DJ Wilshire 5K | 15173.92 | -94.9 | -0.62% |
| Russell 2000 | 790.43 | -7.35 | -0.92% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 2200.48 | -13.38 | -0.60% |
| Issues | NYSE | Nasdaq | Amex |
| Advancing | 783 | 978 | 380 |
| Declining | 2,506 | 2,026 | 845 |
| Unchanged | 86 | 126 | 81 |
| Total | 3,375 | 3,130 | 1,306 |
| New 52 Wk Hi | 65 | 51 | 47 |
| New 52 Wk Low | 289 | 286 | 78 |
| Total Volume | 1,522,479,920 | 2,107,073,557 | 39,067,240 |
| Advancing Vol | 357,824,830 | 788,273,487 | 10,885,800 |
| Declining Vol | 1,141,489,890 | 1,299,522,216 | 26,252,430 |
| Unchanged Vol | 23,165,200 | 19,277,854 | 1,929,010 |
| Futures | Last | Change |
| Crude Oil | 94.6 | 0.62 |
| Natural Gas | 7.931 | -0.068 |
| Gold, Dec. | 811.1 | 0.3 |
From Briefing.com:
| Moving the Market |  | Sector Watch |
| Citigroup announces it will take $8 billion to $11 billion write-down; its CEO and Chairman Chuck Prince is stepping down Credit market fears October ISM Services up to 55.8 (54.0 consensus) | Strong: electric utilities; food distribution; leisure products; brewers; gold; personal products; independent power producers; Internet software & services Weak: real estate management & development; computer storage & peripherals; investment banks & brokerages; photo products; automobile manufacturers; electronic mfg. services; home furnishings; home entertainment software; department stores |
It was quite the start to the trading week with Citigroup (C 35.90, -1.83) roiling the market with an announcement that it anticipates recording a write-down of approximately $8 billion to $11 billion for its fourth quarter due to significant declines in the fair value of its approximately $55 billion of U.S. subprime related direct exposures. On top of its write-down news, Citigroup also announced that CEO Charles Prince announced his "retirement." Sir Win Bischoff, the Chairman of Citi Europe, will serve as interim CEO. Robert Rubin has been named Chairman of the Board and will lead a committee entrusted with finding Prince's replacement. The write-down news from Citigroup sent a shockwave through the financial sector, which traded down as much as 2.8% at its worst levels of the day, as it created fears about more write-downs being taken at other large financial institutions. In brief, it sent an unsettling message that the third quarter did not mark the bottom for the financial sector. Briefing.com had its suspicions about that being the case. Accordingly, on October 5th we reiterated our Underweight rating for the sector. Remarkably, more than 220 million shares of Citigroup, or nearly five times its average daily trading volume, were traded Monday. The weakness in the financial sector was a key drag on the broader market. The S&P 500 was down close to 20 points at its low for the session, which was right around 2:30 ET. The final numbers show that the S&P 500 finished well off its worst level of the day. Presumably, the recovery try was launched when the S&P 500 managed to hold support after re-testing the low of 1489.56 it hit on October 24th. Coincidentally, that was the day Merrill Lynch (MER 55.88, -1.40) reported a shocking $7.9 billion write-down of collateralized debt obligations and U.S. subprime mortgages during for its third quarter. The S&P, in fact, managed to turn positive for a brief moment in the final half hour of the session as program trading and short-covering activity helped drive the expeditious rebound effort. Buying efforts, however, faded into the close, leaving all three major indices in negative territory when the closing bell rang. The financial sector finished down 1.4 percent and was the worst-performing of the ten economic sectors. The utilities sector, which gained 1.2 percent, and the consumer staples sector, which jumped 0.2 percent, were the only sectors to record a gain as they garnered interest in a safe-haven trade. In other developments, the ISM Services index showed a reading of 55.8 for October. That was higher than the consensus estimate of 54.0 and slightly higher than the reading of 54.8 from September. A number above 50 reflects expansion. The market paid little attention to this news, though, as the Citigroup headlines overshadowed all else. |
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