31Oct/080
Financial Journal for October 31 2008
|
Stock Quotes |
10/24/08 Close: |
% Change from Prior Week |
10/31/08 Close: |
|
Dow Jones |
8378.95 |
+11.29, up 946.06 pts |
9325.01 |
|
NASDAQ |
1552.03 |
+10.88, up 168.92 pts |
1720.95 |
|
S&P |
876.77 |
+10.49, up 91.98pts |
968.75 |
Market Movers:
- Rate Cut
- Home Sales Rise
- Investigations and Suspicions continue
Important Market Development Summaries:
- Wall Street scores 2nd-best day ever on rate-cut hopes. Reuters.com. Oct 28, 2008. “Wall Street marked its second-best day ever on Tuesday as investors, convinced that central banks worldwide will cut rates even more, scooped up stocks that had been driven down to their lowest prices in more than five years.”
- After Rate Cut, Stocks Gyrate. WSJ.com. Oct 29, 2008. “On Wednesday, an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve wasn't enough to calm the market, which ended mixed following another volatile session.”
- Home sales rise but prices fall. Reuters.com. Oct 27, 2008. “Sales of newly constructed U.S. single-family homes rose in September and inventories shrank as builders slashed prices to their lowest level in four years to move property as a financial crisis deepens.”
- Dow and S&P 500 fall on profit worry, GE’s outlook. Reuters.com. Oct 29, 2008.
- FBI Probe of JPMorgan Fees Focuses on Swaps Roiling Muni Debt. Bloomberg.com. Oct 27, 2008. “Prosecutors have informed at least five former JPMorgan derivative bankers that they're targets in an investigation of whether banks conspired to overcharge local governments, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, the largest self-regulator for securities firms doing business in the U.S.”
- Defense Lawyers See Bonanza From Lehman, Bear, Other Collapses. Bloomberg.com. Oct 27, 2008. “Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. alone is the subject of three federal investigations and at least 20 subpoenas. Markets for subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and auction- rate securities have come under scrutiny for possible fraud too. In New York, four former executives at Credit Suisse Group and Bear Stearns Cos. have already been charged with fraud.”
- Where Did the Cash Go? The New York Times (Paper). Oct 30, 2008. “A.I.G. Has Used Billions From the Fed but Hasn’t Said for What; it is rapidly running through $123 billion in emergency lending provided by the Federal Reserve, raising questions about how a company claiming to be solvent in September could have developed such a big hole by October.