Bulls once again are able to fend off a mortal gash by bears, erasing much of a sharp morning decline, but still limp away from this engagement.
Nasdaq, in particular, shows some damage as a few tech bellwethers — Google, eBay, Amazon — get hit with some earnest selling. Tech, health-care and financial stocks slide most; only telecom ekes out a small gain.
Euro-zone issues continue to be a drag, euro slides below $1.30, USD index rises 0.4%.
First negative month for the DJIA since August. DJIA down 46.47 to 11006.02, and Nasdaq Comp sheds 26.99 to 2498.23. S&P 500 ends 7.21 lower at 1180.55.
Are advisers investing too much of their client’s money in bonds? Plus, Brett Arends gives a tip on how to play the gold market. And, there’s plenty of money to be made in tech — investors just need to know where to look.
Dow Jones reporter Veronica Dagher offers all this and more in her latest installment of the Wealth Adviser video series.
Posted by Steven Russolilloon September 20, 2010 M&A, Markets, Technology /
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A bidding war for 3Par and a big ArcSight buyout are two reasons investors are hoping for more tech M&A (and getting it, with IBM announcing intentions this morning to buy Netezza for $1.7 billion).
Our DJ colleague Brendan Conway sits down with Ken Allen, portfolio manager of T. Rowe Price’s Science & Technology Fund, who discusses potential M&A activity and shows how mobile computing and software trends could prove more important for the stocks. Allen also considers some of the strategies Apple (AAPL) should be considering in the future.
Stocks are stuck in a funk after a week during which economic concerns essentially overshadowed everything else.
Encouraging earnings from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) aren’t helping the market today, as broader questions about the outlook for the tech sector as well as CEO succession uncertainty continues to dog the shares.
Newswires’ Steve Wisnefski and Mike Reid discuss on the Markets Hub.
- China better have right intentions regarding its pledge for a stronger yuan. “The probability of a disastrous trade war will skyrocket if Congress believes they have been the victim of a classic bait and switch,” Tim Duy writes.
- “Adjustment in China and America will be slow, but that’s not unexpected or entirely a bad thing,” Ryan Avent notes at The Economist’s Free Exchange blog. “And the best news of all is that America and China have managed to arrive at this point without a major diplomatic fall-out.”
- Obama administration’s housing market stabilization efforts are yielding mixed results. Calculated Risk has the details.
- Digital music is a tough business to profit from, but MediaMemo blogger Peter Kafka says it still makes perfect sense for Google (GOOG) to jump in. A music store would enhance Android as well as give GOOG an “owned and operated destination” for music traffic. “My suggestion: Start simple. Copy iTunes’ pay-per-song model.”
- The fact that the “normally bank-friendly” Fed is pressing big banks to move faster in curbing risky pay practices is a step in the right direction, Yves Smith writes at naked capitalism. “Given [the Fed's] track record, I would not be terribly optimistic, but then again, I am surprised it has gone even this far. It would be great if it surprised me again.”
- May existing home sales dropped 2.2% to a 5.66M annual rate, well below the 5% rise to a 6.06M rate that economists were expecting. “We see more evidence that the next leg down in housing has begun,” Barry Ritholtz writes at The Big Picture.
- Investor sentiment can be a funny thing. “You couldn’t find a bull two weeks and eight percent ago but voila, as soon as the 200-day was captured and S&P 1115 traded underfoot, the equity enthusiasm was palpable, as evidenced by the recent collapse in volatility,” Todd Harrison says at Minyanville. “That’s the fatal flaw of technical analysis, right? Financial assets are ‘better’ higher and ‘worse’ lower, which is why I use them as a risk context rather than a catalyst.”
- Business Insider blogger Henry Blodget goes a bit sensationalistic in a recent post entitled “The Odds Are Increasing That Microsoft’s Business Will Collapse.” But in reality, Microsoft (MSFT) faces a “simple and less flashy situation,” BoomTown blogger Kara Swisher says.
- Looking for the important aspects to today’s existing home sales report? “The key is the inventory and months-of-supply, and if these two measures increase later this year as I expect, then there will be additional downward pressure on house prices,” Calculated Risk says.
- The IPO market never really made a comeback from the tech bubble a decade ago, and it’s telling that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn — some of the most successful tech companies right now — keep pushing off filing an IPO as long as possible, Eric Schoenfeld writes at TechCrunch.
Physically I’m fine. But I’m mentally drained keeping up with the ridiculous amount of Apple (AAPL) coverage that has been floating through the blogosphere this week. Considering all the attention the iPad’s unveiling received, one would’ve thought the cure for the common cold was discovered.
Hey, we’re just as guilty as the next news guy, as Apple stories have been splashed all over The Wall Street Journal (and this blog) all week long. A vast majority of my posts this week have been, in one form or another, about Apple.
And guess what? It makes me sick. Because I’m just another cog in the Apple machine.
This is exactly what Apple wants – and it’s absolutely genius. The company leaks some details about a hip new product a few months before its release and then lets the blogosphere do the legwork. Tech bloggers drum up buzz, piecing together as many details as they can about what Apple has up its sleeve. By the time the product is actually released, everyone knows what’s coming. Keep in mind, too, that all this marketing and PR doesn’t cost Apple a dime.
It’s amazing – I dare you to name one other company that can drum up half as much interest about their products, without publicly saying a word, like Apple does.
US stocks remain down, although they’re sharply off the lows with only 30 minutes remaining in today’s session.
Hard to pinpoint exactly what’s driving today’s move. Technology leading the declines a day after Apple’s (AAPL) iPad announcement. Jobless claims and durable goods reports also came in below expectations. S&P 500 up held at support around 1080, so there’s that to consider as well.
But, as Tom Petruno points out, it just seems investors are finding more reasons lately to sell rather than motivation to buy. And issues overseas may be the biggest factors driving this recent slide. From LA Times’ Money & Co blog:
Europe may be the bigger worry at the moment. Stocks were broadly lower there today amid more signs of contagion from Greece’s financial woes. Investors continued to demand sharply higher yields on Greek government bonds, even though the country successfully borrowed more than $11 billion early this week via five-year notes to give itself more breathing room.
Tech stocks fueling today’s market action as big gains from Oracle (ORCL) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) have propelled the major market indexes back into positive territory.
Oracle, seen as an industry barometer because it sells lots of software to a variety of businesses, said its quarterly profit rose 12% from a year ago and sales exceeded expectations. Results are good sign for the broader economy as corporate tech spending may finally be ready to rebound.
Analysts were pretty bullish about Oracle’s results. JPMorgan says better-than-expected results come “on the back of solid execution in the Americas, offset by softer international performance, though all regions showed marked improvement from the previous period.
FBR says profitability levels continue to impress. “Just when you think Oracle cannot deliver upside to margins, the company finds more leverage in the model, and this quarter was no different.”
J.P. Morgan reported some strong earnings today. But what this bloggers eye were some of the sub-numbers in the earnings report. The bank booked $1.8 billion in investment banking fees. But don’t be fooled – that wasn’t from big M&A advising. But $429 million was in advisory fees. Instead, that $1.3 billion + remaining fees […]
David Oreck, founder of a well-known maker of vacuums and air purifiers, says he’s upset his namesake company is in bankruptcy. He says Nashville, Tenn.-based Oreck Corp. was a perfectly profitable company when he sold his stake in it to a private equity firm in 2004. He blames the firm, New York-based American Securities Capital […]
