3.28.08

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   3.28.08

   

The week began on an upbeat note but then it was pretty much all downhill from there. , Bear Stearns got things going, only this time it stirred some buying excitement in the wake of news that JPMorgan Chase agreed to raise its buyout bid for the embattled firm to $10 per share from $2 per share.  Stocks rallied on the report and better than expected earnings news from Tiffany and Walgreen's. The CEO of Bear Stearns took the opportunity to sell off all of his own shares and put about $60 million in his pocket. I bet that really made the other shareholders sleep well that night.

            Concerns were resuscitated with first quarter earnings estimates getting slashed for a number of banks and brokerages on continued write-down fears, oil prices topping $107 per barrel, the inventory of new homes remaining unchanged in February at 9.8 months despite a 2.7% decline in median prices, durable orders for February declining 1.7%, Oracle talking about cautious customer behavior at the end of its fiscal third quarter, and JCPenney sharply reducing its fiscal first quarter guidance because sales were well below expectations through the Easter holiday. The financial sector was the worst-performing area for the week, shedding 7.0% of its value as the sharp earnings  cuts took their toll on sentiment and hastened profit taking efforts following huge gains in the prior week.  

            All in all, it was another busy week for traders and another mind-numbing week of breaking headlines.  The 1.1% decline in the S&P 500 doesn't look that bad given the material gains in the prior week, yet taking a positive view into the weekend is a hard thing to do knowing the S&P 500 declined 2.6% from Monday's close over the remainder of the week with the unsettling financial sector leading that pullback.

--Patrick J. O'Hare, Briefing.com

 He sure has a nice way with words.

Index

Started Week

Ended Week

Change

% Change

YTD

DJIA

12361.32

12216.40

-144.92

-1.2 %

-7.9 %

Nasdaq

2258.11

2261.18

3.07

0.1 %

-14.7 %

S&P 500

1329.51

1315.22

-14.29

-1.1 %

-10.4 %

Russell 2000

681.42

683.18

1.76

0.3 %

-10.8%

As is commonplace anymore, last week had its share of volatility, but very little price movement over the period of the week. We still feel that the risk in this market is too high for the potential reward. So we will once again start off the new week in Cash as we have been doing for some while. The Financial Sector has a lot of settling out to do before we will see any real degree of predictability set in to the market.

  Till next time

  MTA Staff