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Friday, November 28, 2008
Uptick
Bulls Back in Charge: Five in a Row
Matt Egan
FOXBusiness
Wall Street didn't suffer a Thanksgiving hangover this Black Friday as the Dow closed in the green for the fifth consecutive day, easing the pain of a November investors won't want to remember.
Today's Market
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 102.43 points, or 1.17%, to 8829.04, the S&P 500 added 8.56 points, or 0.96%, to 896.24 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 3.47 points, or 0.23%, to 1535.57. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 gained 6.40 points, or 0.93%, to 697.38.
Friday marked the Dow's second best five-day win streak on a percentage basis ever, gaining 16.9% over that span. On a point basis, the benchmark U.S. index surged 1277 points, the most in a five-day win streak ever. The string of victories was also the longest since November 2007.
Few would question any gains these days but Friday's rally came on roughly half the typical day's trading volume, a reflection of the holiday-shortened trading session.
A string of bullish factors have lifted the Dow nearly 1300 points in a week as Wall Street cheered the government's $800 billion intervention into the credit markets, the rescue of Citigroup (C) and the unveiling of President-elect Barack Obama's economic team. Analysts said the markets were also due for a rebound due to a wave of prolific selling amid the worst bear market in nearly a century.
The five days of green were not enough to erase all of the damage from this month's selling barrage. The Dow lost about 5% of its value in November and plummeted 23.5% over the past three months, making this one of the worst slumps since the 31% plunge in the Sept.- Nov. period of 1987.
The Dow was carried higher by double-digit gains from General Motors (GM) and Citi, two of the index's worst-performing stocks this month. General Electric (GE) and Bank of America (BAC) also closed sharply higher, offsetting modest losses from Home Depot (HD) and Microsoft (MSFT).
The most surprising aspect of the rally is that it came in the face of countless signs indicating Black Friday and the holiday shopping season as a whole won't be pretty. Consumer spending suffered its worst performance in two years as sentiment and confidence have deteriorated to all-time lows due to an endless string of gloomy economic headlines.
With that in mind, the National Retail Federation predicted 128 million Americans will shop this weekend, down from the 135 million who sought discounts in 2007 during the retail world's most important weekend of the year.
Despite all of those bearish indicators, stocks rose Friday as an ugly shopping season is widely expected by Wall Street. That point has been underscored by the depressed levels of many retailer's stock prices. For example, department store Macy's (M) saw its stock plummet 40% in November and luxury jeweler Tiffany (TIG) lost 20% of its market value. Betting customers will be bargain hunting even more than in the past, discount retailers like Target (TGT) posted more modest declines.
Tech stocks weighed on the Nasdaq Composite, which saw more selling than the broader market. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) and online auction site eBay (EBAY) took some of the largest percentage declines on the Nasdaq 100, canceling out big gains from Yahoo! (YHOO) and SanDisk (SNDK).
The weakness in the tech sector comes after STMicro (STM), a Franco-Italian chipmaker, slashed its fourth-quarter sales and earnings guidance just a week after reaffirming its outlook. The company blamed a "recent slowdown" for its lower forecast, especially in the computer, cell phone and automotive sectors.
Crude oil futures didn't join in the equities rally, ending flat on the day but well off the lowest levels of the session. At the preliminary close, the price of a barrel of crude ended down one cent to $54.43. Earlier in the day crude had been as low as $51.12 a barrel.
The choppy trading comes ahead of a weekend summit of OPEC nations that may result in another production cut to fight plummeting price. Slammed by global recession fears, crude oil has lost two-thirds of its value since July, its worst price-collapse since futures trading began in 1981, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Corporate Movers
General Motors (GM) is looking to raise $257 million by selling real estate assets in Europe and ending leases as part of a plan aimed at saving $4 billion from asset sales, according to the Financial Times.
Royal Bank of Scottland (RBS) saw minimal demand for its rescue stock offering, forcing the British government to buy a 58% stake in the bank. The government’s new investment of $23 billion was expected after shares of RBS fell below the price in the stock offering
Yahoo! (YHOO) saw its shares rise after regulatory filings showed billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn bought 6.9 million shares of the Internet giant, upping his stake to 5.5%.
UBS (UBS) shareholders signed off on the Swiss banking giant’s plans to seek a rescue from the government. Also, Chairman Peter Kurer said he will return an additional $18.6 million in pay to the bank.
AstroZeneca’s (AZN) new infant lung drug motavizumab suffered a setback as the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said Friday it received a letter requesting more information from the FDA.
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Some mutual funds want you to pay for the privilege of them (or your investment adviser) taking your money to invest. It's called a load, and it works like a cover charge to get into a nightclub. Luckily, there are such things as no-load funds. As the name implies, shares of these funds are sold without a fee paid to a broker or investment advisor.
The entire amount you invest in no-load funds goes to work for your returns. On the other hand, with load funds, right off the bat you're charged commission (not to mention other fees incurred over the life of the investment). Let's say, for example, you invest $25,000 into a load fund that charges a 5% commission. This costs you $1,250 off the top, bringing your actual investment down to only $23,750.
The often-cited horse race analogy argues against investing in load funds. Here's the logic behind it: Would you place a bet on a horse that had to start a race 200 yards behind the others? Well, maybe you would if you got a tip from a sketchy, trench coat-clad man in a dark alley. However, under most circumstances, it's not smart to put your money on that handicapped horse.
But some argue that at times that man in the trench coat (aka your broker) knows more about the horses than you do, and has a better shot at picking a winner. Also, sometimes these fees are unavoidable because some funds are available only through investment advisers.
Cost-benefit analysis can help determine when a load fund is worth it (in other words, when it will score you a load) and when it is better to "do it yourself" and avoid the fees. Load-fund fees range depending on share class and can cover a variety of costs, such as paper work and fund management.
