DOW FALLS OVER 120 POINTS: Here’s What You Need To Know (DIA, SPY, QQQ)

By admin on February 4, 2013

new york stock exchange wall street trader

After setting new post-crisis highs on Friday, stocks took a little tumble.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 13,887, -122.2, -0.8 percent
S&P 500: 1,496, -15.0, -1.0 percent
NASDAQ: 3,134, -44.9, -1.4 percent

And now the top stories:

It was a relatively quiet day for economic news and earnings announcements. This morning, we learned that factory orders climbed by just 1.8 percent in December. This was much lower than the 2.3 percent gain expected.
According to the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey: “In the January survey, generally modest fractions of domestic banks reported having eased their standards across major loan categories over the past three months on net.”
“Easier lending standards are usually associated with later employment growth,” said UBS economist Ethan Harris at a luncheon in December. So the Fed’s survey should be interpreted as good news.
Most strategists aren’t too worried about today’s sell-off saying that it’s just some profit-taking. Market guru Ed Yardeni thinks a melt-up could send the S&P surging 1,665.
But there are plenty of strategists who are a bit more concerned. Goldman’s Jim O’Neill, thinks stocks can continue to go up, but he warns that they aren’t cheap from a valuation perspective.
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