Stock Market News for July 19, 2010 - Market News
Consumers’ growing pessimism about the economic recovery shook investors’ confidence on Friday, sending major averages off at least 2%, even as some companies reported better-than-anticipated quarterly numbers. Financials led on the downside after some big names from the sector posted weaker-than-expected quarterly revenues.
The decline was broad based and all thirty DJIA components ended in the red. Even relatively defensive plays such as AT&T (NYSE:T) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) were not spared. Big firms such as General Electric (NYSE:GE), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings but their revenues fell. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was a notable gainer after the firm announced a $550 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 261 points, or 2.5%, on Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led with a drop of 70 points, or 3.1%, and the broader S&P 500 index fell 32 points, or 2.9%. The slump Friday was enough to send all three major indexes into the red for the week, with the broader S&P 500 index leading the drop. On the week, the Dow average fell 1%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.2% and the Nasdaq retreated 0.8%.
Gold and crude prices weakened. Flight to safety sent treasury prices higher, sending corresponding yields lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.93 percent from 3.00 percent late Thursday.
Among technology names, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) disappointed with a 6% drop Friday after the search giant posted weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.
This week sees a broad range of companies reporting their earnings numbers, including today's numbers from IBM (NYSE:IBM) after the close, as well as from Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), Hasbro (NYSE:HAS), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Delta (NYSE:DAL). On Tuesday, earnings are due from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), as well as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP), State Street (NYSE:STT) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO). Wednesday sees such names as Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), US Bancorp (NYSE:USB), EBAY (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM). Thursday's corporate agenda includes numbers from 3M (NYSE:MMM), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), American Express (NYSE:AXP), AT&T (NYSE:T), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Travelers (NYSE:TRV), UPS (NYSE:UPS), and SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK). On Friday, numbers are due from Honeywell (NYSE:HON), McDonalds (NYSE:MCD), Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and Ford (NYSE:F).
This week, however, assumes importance for reasons more than one. Besides earnings results from a number of key companies, the Fed Chairman Bernanke’s two-day testimony on the Hill beginning Wednesday is expected to be parsed for any stimulus-related plans. Also, Friday sees the results of stress tests of about 91 European financial institutions, even as questions about lack of transparency in the method of testing begin to gain ground.
