YAHOO[BRIEFING.COM]:
Stocks concluded a whipsaw session with modest modest gains after market
participants stepped in to provide short-term support to stocks.
During the session the stock market had been down as much as 3%,
while the Dow dropped more than 600 points to cross 8000 for the first time
since its November bear market low.
At their session lows both indices were down 12% from their January
high. With a sense stocks were becoming oversold, buyers stepped in to provide
support.
Eight of the 10 sectors finished higher. Telecom (-1.1%) and
financials (-5.1%) were the only sectors that failed to make their way into
positive territory.
Financials led the session's initial losses. The sector had been
down as much as 8.3% as JPMorgan Chase
(JPM 24.34, -1.57), Bank of
JPMorgan Chase reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $0.07
per share, which was better than the break-even level that Wall Street was
expecting. Still, the results were far below the $0.86 per share earned one
year ago. JPMorgan also reminded investors just how shaky macro conditions
remain when it reported it added $4.1 billion (pretax) to loan loss reserves.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street
Journal reported Bank of America is close to receiving additional
federal aid to assist in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, even though the bank
has already received $25 billion in federal funds. The need for additional
capital led many investors to question whether the bank can maintain its
dividend. The stock had been down more than 20% to reach new multiyear lows,
but finished off those levesl. At BAC's
current share price, the stock carries a dividend yield of 15.3%.
Large-cap tech stocks like Research
In Motion (RIMM 49.24, +4.14) and Qualcomm (QCOM 34.80, +1.04) helped
the Nasdaq outperform the other headline indices this
sesssion. Apple
(AAPL 83.38, -1.95), however, traded as a laggard. Apple fell
under pressure after its CEO, Steve Jobs, said he is taking a medical leave of
absence until June.
Motorola
(MOT 4.43, +0.32) was one of the latest companies to issue a cautious outlook
and announce additional job cuts. Motorola expects fourth quarter revenue will
likely range from $7.0 billion to $7.2 billion, which falls short of the $7.5
billion consensus estimate. The company will cut roughly 4,000 employees this
year. That's in addition to the 3,000 cuts already announced.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 10 totaled 524,000,
which is up 54,000 week-over-week, and more than the 503,000 claims that were
expected. Continuing claims stand at 4.497 million, which is less than the 4.62
million continuing claims that were expected. The prior reading was increased
slightly to reflect 4.612 million continuing claims. Although encouraging at
first glance, the continued claims improvement is likely a function of many
people having exhausted their jobless claims benefits.
In other economic news, the December Producer Price Index fell 1.9%
month-over-month, which wasn't quite as bad as the 2.0% downturn that was
expected. Excluding food and energy, producer prices were up 0.2%
month-over-month. Economists expected a 0.1% increase.DJ30 +12.35 NASDAQ +22.20
NQ100 +1.7% R2K +2.1% SP400 +1.7% SP500 +1.12 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec
1556/2.50 bln/1151 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1670/1.65 bln/1420