STOCKS RISE AND FACEBOOK GETS SLAMMED: Here’s What You Need To Know (SPY, FB, AAPL, MCP)

By admin on August 17, 2012

Markets continued to nap today but Facebook and Molycorp got hammered.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 13,275.20, +25.09, +0.19%
S&P 500: 1,418.16, +2.65, +0.19%
NASDAQ: 3,076.59, +14.20, +0.46%

And now the top stories:

European markets continued to rally today with stocks reaching a 13-month high. But it was the rally in Spain and Italy that got everyone’s attention, since Spain was up nearly 2 percent today, after a 4 percent rally yesterday. Italy was also up over 1 percent. 7 reasons September is going to be a huge month for Europe >
Shares of platinum miner Lonmin fell again today, after 45 people were reported dead following the massacre at the Lonmin platinum mine in South Africa. Police killed striking miners that were armed with machetes, and Paul Murphy at FT Alphaville thinks investors haven’t adequately priced in the impact of the attack.
Bloomberg then reported that chancellor Angela Merkel is considering easing Greece’s bailout terms even as she risks heightening tensions in her coalition government. There was no major market reaction to the report, but it added to recent pro-euro comments out of Germany.
U.S. markets were modestly higher, but Nasdaq climbed higher driven by Apple. Apple’s share price increased to $ 646.75, a record-high.
At 9:55 a.m. the U.S. saw its only major data point of the day and consumer confidence did not disappoint. The key measure of consumer confidence climbed to 73.6 in August, up from 72.3 the previous month. This was the first increase after three months of declines. Now here is Abby Joseph Cohen’s presentation on what’s really happening in markets and the economy >
Facebook shares fell as much as 4 percent today and hit a low of $ 19.01. The stock has been getting hammered since early investors were allowed to sell Facebook shares for the first time on Thursday. Dear Facebook Employee’s: Here’s the truth about your stock price >
Molycorp plunged over 11 percent today after Dahlman Rose downgraded the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’. This comes after the company announced that it would sell stock and bonds.

Don’t Miss: The Ultimate Guide To China’s Voracious Energy Use >




	BI Intelligence, a new subscription research service from Business Insider, provides in-depth insight, data, and analysis of the mobile industry. Access all reports, research updates, presentations, data and chart libraries plus much more with your free trial.

	Click here to start your subscription>>