The stock market ends the week negative by more than 3%, for the worst weekly performance since February 9, 2008 for the Dow [.DJIA  Loading...      ()   ] and NASDAQ, and the worst weekly performance for the S&P since June 21, 2008.  Intraday the Dow falls 20% from its market high of 14,164.53 set on October 9th, pushing the market into bear market territory.
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ are also close to a 20% loss from their peak levels.

-Boeing [BA  Loading...      ()   ] was the biggest drag on the Dow by impact, down almost 12% for the week.
-Bank of America [BAC  Loading...      ()   ] was the biggest drag on the S&P by impact, down more than 9% for the week.
-Research in Motion [RIMM  Loading...      ()   ] was the biggest drag on the NASDAQ 100 by impact, down over 16% for the week.  

The S&P 500 sectors were negative for the week with the exception of Energy.  The worst performing sector was the Financials, down almost 7% for the week.
-The Energy sector was boosted by Weatherford International [WFT  Loading...      ()   ] up over 8% for the week.
-Financials were dragged down by MBIA [MBI  Loading...      ()   ], down over 25% for the week.

Oil [US@CL.1  Loading...      ()] dominated the markets again this week, with record settlements two days running, closing at a record $140.21 on Friday after hitting an intraday high of $142.99 per barrel.  For the week, oil gained 3.58%.
-Gold also gained this week on the flight to quality, up 3%, but still off over 7% from its record close of $1003.20 hit on March 18th.
-Cocoa hit a 28-yr peak on Friday, and is up 1.54% this week, and over 55% in 2008 on fears of production cutbacks in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Indonesia.

U.S. Dollar weakness persists as risk-averse traders avoid the greenback with oil hitting new highs and a declining US stock market.
If the ECB raises rates next week, the dollar could fall further against the euro.
 

Tools:

PrintEmail Del.icio.us Digg It

Next Post

Previous PostBack to Main Page