A furious late-day comeback effort erased heavy losses on Wall Street Friday as the markets managed to mostly shrug off a new report showing the U.S. unemployment rate soared last month to the highest level since 1983.
Today's Markets
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.50 points, or 0.49%, to 6626.94, the S&P 500 gained 0.83 point, or 0.12%, to 683.38 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.74 points, or 0.44%, to 1293.85. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 added 3.76 points, or 0.73%, to 517.23.
Friday marked another turbulent trading day for stocks as Wall Street initially rallied, expressing relief that February's job-loss figures weren't worse than many were already bracing for. That enthusiasm quickly faded as tech and banking stocks briefly sent the Dow below the 6500 level for the first time since April 1997 before a late-day rally brought the markets back to even.
“We came into the day with a bit of optimism about in-line economic data. I think in general this market just ran out of steam on the downside. The sellers ran out of bullets,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. “I think we can characterize this bizarre Friday afternoon action as a phenomenon we’re going to have to get used to.”
Despite the late-day rally, the Dow tumbled 6.2% this week, its fourth consecutive weekly decline. The losses were even heavier for the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500, which each suffered their worst weekly drops since November.
Aside from the bleak labor figures, the markets were moved by uncertainty about the future of General Motors (GM) a negative analyst report about Apple (AAPL) and a report that British lender Lloyds (LYG) has reached a deal with the U.K. government to insure more than $353 billion of its assets.
By Friday afternoon, roughly half of the Dow's 30 components ended in the green, led by General Electric (GE) and Coca-Cola (KO). On the other hand, GM lost nearly one-quarter of its value and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) ended sharply lower.
The Nasdaq Composite slipped to its lowest intraday level since March 2003, led down by heavy losses for big-name tech stocks like Research in Motion (RIMM) and Sun Microsystems (JAVA). Tech stocks came under pressure after JPMorgan Chase cut its price target on iPod maker Apple (AAPL) to $100 due to the deepening global downturn.
All eyes Friday morning were on another dismal labor report, which revealed the U.S. lost 651,000 jobs in February, bringing the 14-month toll to 4.4 million jobs. While the numbers were ugly, the markets were bracing for an even worse report.
"This is a terrible report and it seems to be setting in to many people that not only are things terrible, but they are...getting worse," Dan Greenhaus, equity analyst at Miller Tabak, wrote in a note. "As we enter the spring, the market is in the process of repricing itself for severe economic contraction for many more months than earlier anticipated."
As employers slashed jobs to cope with plunging consumer spending, the U.S. unemployment rate surged in February from 7.6% to 8.1%, the highest level since December 1983. Economists had been predicting the unemployment rate would rise more modestly to 7.9%.
“I think the number was pretty much baked in,” NSYE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business.
Financial stocks received a boost Friday afternoon after The Wall Street Journal reported the U.K. reached a deal to insure up to $353 billion of Lloyds' assets and to increase its stake in the lender to as much as 75%. The financial sector, which had been sharply lower earlier in the day, ended down less than 1% on the news.
Underscoring the deep level of anxiety about the precarious state of the nation's domestic auto industry, General Motors plunged to 75-year lows on Friday and neared $1 per share. GM is now "more open" to the possibility of a government-sponsored bankruptcy, the Journal reported, raising the stakes the troubled auto maker will soon file for Chapter 11.
Meanwhile, crude oil futures settled at six-week highs on Friday thanks to a 1% decline for the greenback. The price of a barrel of crude jumped $1.91, or 4.38%, to $45.52, capping off the commodity's third-straight winning week. Highlighting the continued anxiety in the markets, gold rose for the second straight day, gaining $15.10 per ounce, or 1.63%, to settle at $942.10.
Corporate Movers
Roche (RHHBY) upped its offer to $44.7 billion to acquire the 44% of Genentech (DNA) that it doesn’t already own, sending shares of the world’s largest biotech company soaring. Roche also extended its offer by a week until March 30 and said it will proceed quickly to complete the needed financing.
Wells Fargo (WFC) slashed its dividend by 85% in an effort to save$5 billion per year. The fourth-largest U.S. bank also sees $2 billion in additional cost cuts in 2009 and said it had "strong" results in January and February, sending its shares jumping.
Bank of America (BAC) is considering shedding its stand-alone investment-management shop, Columbia Management, as the bank continues to sell non-core assets, the New York Post reported. No formal processes are under way to sell Columbia, which is considered expendable because of BofA’s stake in BlackRock (BLK), the newspaper reported.
Merrill Lynch said it has “discovered an irregularity” during a recent review of its trading positions, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Risk officers at Merrill discovered a London currency trader may have improperly booked a large loss as a $120 million fourth-quarter profit, The New York Times reported.
British Airways (BAIRY) was downgraded to junk-grade by Standard & Poor’s, which cited a “significant worsening in the trading outlook for BA as the economic downturn takes hold.” The airline recently warned its full-year revenue will miss earlier forecasts.
Ford (F) has assigned the task of selling its Volvo brand by the end of the second quarter to a new internal committee code-named ‘Project Nile,’ The Detroit News reported. While negotiations are still at an early stage, Ford is in talks with more than one Chinese auto maker, the newspaper reported.
Global Markets
European markets gave up early gains, ending in the red for the fourth straight week. The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 sank 0.89% to 1817.24, London's FTSE 100 inched 0.02% higher to 3530.73 and Germany's DAX fell 0.79% to 3666.41.
Asian markets plunged overnight, led by a 3.5% dive for Tokyo's Nikkei 225, which ended at 7173.10. Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 2.37% to 11921.52 while Australia's ASX200 fell 1.35% to 3145.50.
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