Finance Downgraded
Stocks fell all day, and regain a small amount of their loss at the end of the day, ending down 135 points. The bad news was that key financial companies (think Lehman, Merrill and Morgan Stanley) got downgraded by Standard and Poor’s rating company. This caused nervousness that another shoe may drop in the financial industry sometime in the future.
Bonds gained significantly on the news, and interest rates on the 10 Year Treasury Bond fell below 4% to close at 3.97%.
Oil, gasoline and Gold all moved up slightly.
The Dollar stood still, and doesn’t have much motivation to move during the week.
In the news today….
Wachovia’s board fired their CEO today, and WAMU’s CEO lost his job too. Is this a sign of “accountability” coming back into the boardroom – or was it ever there?
Construction of single family homes fell 2.3% in May – the 26th consecutive month to fall. Non-residential building was up 1.6% in May with shopping centers, office buildings and hotels leading the list of construction.
The ISM (Institute of Supply Management) Index of industrial activity rose to 49.6 (anything less than 50 is a contracting industrial economic condition). This was good news because the consensus “guess” was that the number would be much less.
Here are today’s numbers:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial - 12,504 (down 135 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.97% (down 0.08%)
Euro - 1.5538
Gold - $897 (up $6)
Oil - $127.76 (up $0.41)
Gasoline - $3.39 (up $0.04)
