9:00am (EST)
The bears continued their assault on the bulls Thursday following a pattern of late-day sell-offs that has carried the market generally lower all week.
Yesterday’s weakness came after the Labor Department reported initial jobless claims declined 19,000 week-over-week to 457,000 which was roughly in-line with the 460,000 that had been expected.
The market also got a worse-than-expected durable goods number, and the ongoing debate over the pending financial reform bill had an impact on the Financial stocks. More on this in a minute…
As a result, the Dow dropped 146 points, or 1.4%, and closed at 10,152. The index finished right near its low and took out the 20-day moving average (MA) in the process. If we get a repeat today and slip below 10,000 then next week could be a doozy.
The S&P 500 fell 18 points, or 1.7%, to settle at 1,073. The level Wall Street will be watching today is the 1,040 mark and if that is taken out then we could see a triple-digit index real soon.
The Nasdaq gave back 36 points, or 1.6%, to finish at 2,217. More importantly, the index failed support at 2,240 and looks like it could be headed to 2K.
Research In Motion (RIMM, $58.58, down $1.06) is down $3 in pre-market trading after reporting earnings after the close on Thursday.
The company posted a profit of $769 million, or $1.38 a share, versus $643 million, or $1.12, in the year earlier period. Revenue rose 24% to $4.2 billion. Wall Street was looking for $1.34 a share, on revenues of $4.4 billion.
RIMM said it shipped 11 million units and added 4.5 million new subscribers. These figures were at the at the low end of the company’s forecast range, but fell short of the 11.5 million and the 5 million new subscribers that analysts had penciled in.
Overall, this was a solid report from RIMM, but we showed you the writing on the wall yesterday. The company plans to unveil a new line of handsets, perhaps by the end of the summer, but RIMM is playing catch-up to other rivals now. It used to be the other way around.
The “other” big news this morning is the financial regulation reform bill appears closer to being signed as Congress pulled an all-nighter to get the final details hammered out. The bill is expected to be signed next week by the president and brings sweeping changes to Wall Street and some of their business practices.
Futures are pointing towards a slightly lower open this morning as the bears try to close the week with a sweep. They have been making noise all week and have shaved about 4% off the major indexes since Monday.
As we head to press, Dow futures are down 14 points to 10,085 while the S&P 500 futures are off by 2 points to 1,068. The Nasdaq 100 futures are lower by 3 points to 1,846.
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