US Market back in its loss making mood

Led by Financial and Retail stocks, US Market was back to its loss making mood today, Monday, 04 February, 2008. This was expected from the market, given the huge gains it posted last week. Continued weakness in big-cap technology issues also weighed heavily on the broader market. A downgrade of financials stocks also spurted todays sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a huge loss of 108 points at 12,635. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished lower by 30.5 points at 2,383. S&P 500 finished lower by 14.6 points at 1,380.82. Twenty-three out of thirty Dow stocks ended in the red today. American Express led the team of Dow laggards. Merck, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson were few of the Dow winners.

The Factory Orders report for December was the lone economic release today. Although the reported 2.3% increase by the Commerce Department was a bit shy of the consensus estimate of 2.5%, it marked acceleration from the 1.7% growth rate reported for November. Moreover, it provided an indication that there still isn't much evidence of a recession in manufacturing.
UBS helped ignite the selling activity today after it gave a Sell rating on consumer finance companies Discover Financial Services, Capital One and American Express on concerns about a consumer-led recession. In a related move, Merrill Lynch also cut Wells Fargo and Wachovia Securities.

As a follow-up to the Microsoft-Yahoo story, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Google offered Yahoo! its help in fending off Microsoft if it so desired.
Indian ADRs ended mixed today. Apart from MTNL, VSNL and Patni Computers, all other Indian ADRs ended in the red today. Patni and MTNL shares gained 6% and 4% respectively.
Crude prices gained for today with mixed economic data sending mixed signals across the economy. Prices also gained as Turkish planes attacked suspected Kurdish insurgent bases. Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for March delivery today closed at $90.02/barrel (higher by $1.02/barrel or 1.2%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are 53% higher than a year ago. Earlier it fell to a low of $88.7/barrel.

Trading volumes showed 1.3 billion shares exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange, with declining issues topping gainers by a ratio of 3 to 2. On the Nasdaq, 2.0 billion shares traded, with decliners topping gainers by 4 to 3.

Tomorrow's economic report of focus is the ISM non-manufacturing survey. The report garners interest from investors and economists seeking insight into the health of the economy's service sector