Daily Market Wrap
US stocks ended the day nearly unchanged. After several days of losses last week, it looked as if there was some bargain hunting going on in the early part of the day. But as the day came to a close, the major indexes were basically flat, with the NASDAQ and S&P 500 eking out a tiny gain.
There was more news today that the economic recovery is slowing. This morning we learned that Japan’s GDP for the second quarter was surpassed by China, pushing Japan from being the 2nd largest economy to the 3rd largest.
Another reason for caution today, Lowe‘s ( LOW – news – people ) , the second biggest home improvement retailer, fell short of analyst expectations. The company posted second quarter earnings that were a penny shy of what Wall Street was expecting. Lowe’s said that it needs a stronger housing market to create consistent demand for its products. It also lowered it’s earnings forecast for the end of the year. There will be more information out tomorrow on the housing market as the government releases its report on housing starts for July. Also tomorrow the Obama administration will be holding a conference on the US housing finance system. In the meantime, another home improvement retailer, Home Depot ( HD – news – people ) , will report its earnings tomorrow morning before the market opens, with analysts expecting 71 cents per share.
Education and training services shares were down today after a report that students are not repaying their loans. This may jeopardize government aid to some for-profit education companies. One of them, Corinthian Colleges ( COCO – news – people ), was off more than 20%.
3Par was higher by 86% on today. The computer giant Dell ( DELL – news – people ) announced its plans to buy the data storage firm for $18 per share in cash, almost double the company’s closing price on Friday.
Shares of Deere were also a bright spot today, after Citigroup ( C – news – people ) () said today it believes the shares are worth $75 each since costs are decreasing and commodity prices are improving.
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