Tired investors after last week’s long stock bender
Dow: 13,553 (-0.30%) S&P 500: 1,461 (-0.31%)
Between the media frenzy surrounding Occupy Wall Street’s 1st birthday and the Jewish New Year, we’d be lying if we said this was another typical Monday. Thousands of creatively-dressed protestors attempted to human-link around the New York Stock Exchange while a big portion of the financial industry was simply at home for the holiday. It was a weird combo. After the Federal Reserve‘s announcement to initiate a quantitative easing program (“QE3″) to stimulate economic growth propelled last week’s stock rally, the Dow drifted down 40 points today. Investors were turned off by fresh concerns over Europe and the Fed’s survey of New York State manufacturing, which showed business activity in one of the nation’s most economically significant states dipped in September, contrary to expectations.
Eurozone finance ministers cannot agree to timetable for the new banking union
It’s always a big decision to commit to someone; Vermont showed their commitment to commitment by passing laws for civil unions back in 2000, and the Eurozone is trailblazing as well with their banking union the 17 members agreed to in June. It’s also a big move to tie financial strings with a loved one, and the 17 Euro nations did that last week, when the ECB decided it could print euros to fund struggling government budgets. Now investors want these agreements to be acted on – and today at a meeting of euro finance ministers in Cyprus they hit a speed bump. They couldn’t agree on a timetable to enact the rules & regulations of the continent-wide banking union. The union is key for euro stability and investors were not thrilled to the delay in their first chance to discuss the logistics. Remember, Europe is infamous for its slow bureaucracies…now 17 different ones need to agree to a single banking regulator with huge consequences to each their finances (it’s going to be slow and frustrating). Stocks fell in Europe and the US on the sign of slow things to come for European unity.
Steel firms fall, Apple shares reach $700, GE and Boeing dip on plane engine news
After last week’s fancy product presentation, iPhone 5 sales reached 2 million units in the 1st day’s orders, over double the record set by the previous best-phone-ever. The frenzy helped AT&T (T) add 1% and pushed Apple (AAPL) shares past the symbolically significant (everyone loves a round number) $700 a share in after-hours trading. On the flip side, maker-of-everything General Electric (GE) dipped after the National Transportation Safety Board issued “urgent safety recommendations” on GE plane engines. Boeing (BA) lost just under 2% on the news since jets need properly functioning engines to do what they do best. The big sector move of the day though was in steel – JP Morgan analysts cut ratings of steel firms as they foresee a drop in steel demand, smacking US Steel (X) with a 5% loss.
Tomorrow:
- The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) September Housing Market Index measures how home prices are doing in the US.
- The President of the NY Fed is more privileged than the other Fed presidents – he votes on every policy matter, where as the others have to take turns…this is no joke. Gotham Fed president William Dudley speaks in NJ at 11:30.
© 2012 MarketSnacks
