As Thanksgiving week begins in the United States, investors did not appear to be thankful for the one thing they wanted last week: a solution to the Irish debt problem.
Instead, stocks -- especially financial stocks -- slumped on word that the Irish government has asked the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund for billions of dollar of help to support Ireland's ailing banking system.
In addition, worries about an insider-trading probe also weighed on financial stocks.
At 1:50 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) were down 97 points, or 0.9%, to 11,106. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX)was off 9 points, 0.8%, to 1,191, after finishing just about at the psychologically important 1,200 level on Friday.
Tech stocks, especially Apple (AAPL), were giving the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) some support. The index was off just 3 points, 0.1%, to 2,515. The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks, was off 2 points to 2,134.
Apple was up 0.7% to $308.39. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which reportsfiscal-fourth-quarter results after today's close, was up slightly to $42.49.
The U.S. dollar rose against the euro, forcing crude oil and copper lower. Crude oil for January delivery was off $1.15 to $80.83. Copper was off 9 cents to $3.743 a pound. Gold was up slightly to $1,353.60 an ounce.
Interest rates were lower with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to $2.826% from 2.895% on Friday.
Banks lead the S&P 500 lower
The 30 Dow stocks were lower today, along all 10 sectors of the S&P 500.
Financial and energy stocks were among the worst-performing stocks. The S&P 500 financial sector index off 1.4%. The S&P 500 Financial Sector exchange-traded fund (XLF) was off 2% to $14.56.
Bank of America (BAC) was off 3.4% to $11.27. JPMorgan Chase (JPM)was down 2.9% to $38.25.
Mostly, the declines were due to worries about how the Irish situation might affect banks in other countries. Deutsche Bank (DB), Barclays(BCS), Societe Generale (SCGLY) and other big European financial were all down as well.
Energy shares slumped as oil moved lower. ExxonMobil (XOM) was off 2% to $69.10. Schlumberger (SLB) dropped 1.6% to $75.20.
Goldman Sachs slump on insider-trading probe
Goldman Sachs (GS) was off 3.8% to $160.29 after The Wall Street Journal reported this weekend that the investment house is a focal point a three-year investigation into possible insider-trading networks.
Sources told The Journal that the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal officials are nearing the end of the probe, which includes whether Goldman Sachs bankers divulged information about health-care acquisitions and other transactions.
Earlier today, FBI agents raided the Connecticut offices of hedge funds Diamondback Capital Management and Level Global Investors amid a far-reaching insider-trading investigation, The Journal said.
An FBI spokesman confirmed the raids.
The hedge funds are run by former managers of Steve Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors.
Level Global Investors is a Greenwich, Conn., hedge-fund firm run by David Ganek, a former SAC Capital trader and art collector. He started Level Global in 2003 and earlier this year reported managing about $4 billion in assets.
Diamondback Capital Management, founded, in 2005, is managing $5 billion in assets.
No comments:
Post a Comment