8/7/08 Market Falls as Unemployment Claims Hit 6 Yr. High

The Dow fell 224.56 to close today at 11431.43 while NASDAQ lost 22.64 to close at 2355.73 and S&P closed at 1266.07 dropping 23.12. For the week ended 8/2 jobless claims rose 1.6% to 455,000. Other bad news included crude oil rising to $119.96 per barrel and AIG (AIG) leading the financial sector decline as it lost 5.25 to close at 23.84 as it announced 2d qtr. losses of $5.4 billion. Citigroup (C) dropped 1.23 to 18.47 on the announcement that it agreed to settle with the NY Attorney Geneal regarding claims that Citi lied to investors by marketing auction rate securities as safe. Wal-Mart (WMT) fell 3.80 to close at 56.96 due to less than expected increase in July same-sale store sales. The only good news was that June pending home sales rose .3% month-over-month, beating the anticiapted decline of 1.0%. That's it for today from the land of the peaches.