8/12/08 Stock Market Declines Due to Pessimism in Financial & Retail Sectors

The Dow gave up yesterday's gains dropping 139.96 to close at 11642.39 while NASDAQ (with more tech stocks than the Dow) declined only 9.34 to 2430.61. S&P 500 closed at 1289.59 down 15.73. The Financial Sectors got hit with news that JP Morgan Chase (JPM 37.99 down 3.90) was writing off $1.5 billion and Morgan Stanley's (MS 42.61 down 2.78) debt got downgraded. Wachovia (WB 16.04 down 2.17) and Goldman Sachs (GS 106.79 down 11.21) also took hits due to weakened earnings estimates. UBS (UBS 20.35 down 1.34) announced it was restructuring its operating units. The damage would have been worse but for two good news items: crude oil continued to fall closing at $113.31 a barrel and the trade deficit fell from $43.1 billion (May) to $39.1 billion. That's all from the land of the peaches.