9:00am (EST)
The Dow continued its winning ways on Thursday as the bulls battled back from a 1% drubbing to take the Dow higher for the 4th straight day. The bears were doing some damage as the market started with a quick trip into negative territory with disappointing forecasts from eBay (EBAY, $24.78, down $1.51) and Qualcomm (QCOM, $39.33, down $3.30) fueling the fire.
Qualcomm beat on earnings and raised their dividend but gave weak guidance going forward while eBay echoed the same latter comments. However, the bulls used other good earnings news and forecasts to lift the market higher as Sandisk (SNDK, $42.22, up $4.63) and Starbucks (SBUX, $27.25, up $1.86) reported outstanding results.
There were a couple of economic reports that also helped the bulls’ case.
The Department of Labor said the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 456,000 last week from 484,000 in the previous week.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales rose 7% to a 5.35 million units from a 5.02 million. Wall Street was expecting sales to come in at 5.28 million.
As a result, the market finished with slight gains asthe Dow ended at 11,134, up 9 points. The S&P 500 added 3 points to finish at 1,208 while the Nasdaq added two touchdowns and settled at 2,519.
Selling was intense for much of yesterday after Moody’s (MCO, $26.06, up $0.37) downgraded Greece’s debt ratings (after the fact) while President Obama preached to America about how terrible Wall Street is.
It’s Friday, so we are going to take a jab.
Wall Street shouldn’t take the brunt of the financial woes…it was everybody in America who got in when the gettin’ was good. Wall Street didn’t write all of the subprime loans and 2nd mortgages that brought the housing market to its knees. Does Washington realize how many mom and pop realtors popped up and the real estate agents and appraisers who worked the deals? Did ALL of them work for Wall Street? Didn’t think so.
Was it really realistic that someone who made $8 an hour was able to afford a $300,000 home? No. Yet, realtors we selling them a home based on “no doc” loans. Credit rating below 500? No problem. Anybody could get a loan and if you didn’t make enough you could get a loan based on what you thought you would make in the future.
Back in the day you had to work you butt off to get a house (we did) and the process took months. At the height of the housing bubble, deals were done in a day or so.
So, in the end it was all of us from around the world who caused this mess, not just Wall Street.
We said a few weeks ago that Washington is smarter than Wall Street but wanted to set the facts straight… at least from our point of view.
Moody’s is a joke but that is for another day. If you get bored over the weekend, use our “Search” feature to scan the archives for our two cents on the company.
Some of our trades are making some nice moves so we want to get our subscribers in the Members Area. As we head to press, Dow futures are up 4 points to 11,072 while the S&P 500 futures are higher by 2 to 1,203. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 8 to 2,044.
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