Market briefing---Matt (slow)
Terrorism concerns---Su (fast)
NYSE---Deb (fast)
welcome to “world financial report.” i am matt nesto. let’s get through the closing numbers. slumping to a three-month low. the dow, s&p and nasdaq all down over 1%. the nasdaq, worst of the three, down almost 1.6% today. your volume on the big board, 1.4 billion shares and the nasdaq trading just shy of two billion shares today. quick check on the broader indexes. red arrows and the total index. bonds on the rise, safe haven in times of uncertainty, the 10-year note up to yield, yield falling and bond rising up half a point today. more, now, on renewed terrorism concerns contributing to drops in u.s. stocks today. the s&p 500 fell to a three-month low on the new york stock exchange.% more than three stocks were down for each one that was up and su keenan has been tallying up the terrorism concerns and their effect on the market .
>> not just here on the u.s. we saw it across europe. market strategists say terror concerns have beening about building since the terror attack in madrid was linked to al qaeda. today, the killing of a palestinian leader in israel sparked concerns throughout the west. markets tumbles in all 17 markets after sheikh ahmed yassin, spiritual leader of hamas, was killed by israelis in the gaza strip. stewart grazer, fund manager in london, says terrorism is very much at the forefront of people’s minds and “today’s news from israel doesn’t help.” ron blaylock, chairman and c.e.o. of blaylock & partners,ings we’re seeing the concerns play out.
>> we do think that’s an overreaction in the short term. the market and the economy has been strong in light of the geopolitical risks with us over the last three years. given that backdrop, the market has been able to sustain and pull through gains and with earnings as strong as they have been, don’t expect earnings to keep the pace they’re on in tornadoes terms of earnings growth. but that core engine is a good stabilizer for a volatile world.
>> peter hooper, chief economist for deutsche bank securities thinks this year’s market gains are sustainable.
>> the fact that business spending has picked up significantly over the last couple of months relative to the fourth quarter,, says that businesses feel this economy has real sustainability, that we’re into an expansion phase here. we’re looking to see if we build on a strong january number for non-defense capital goods numbers, up 20% at an annual rate over the fourth quarter, an impressive gain. if we have a further gain, we’re well on the way.
>> wayne wilbanks out of virginia, technical analyst, sees two to three weeks of further volt tilt and predicts the year-long market rally will continue. very tough patch for the market right now.
>> su keenan, thank you very much. moving on, now, we’re down to the new york stock exchange% -where we mentioned markets were under heavy pressure because of all of those terrorism concerns. deborah kostroun is at the big board with a wrap of the day’s action. deb?
>> that’s really what all traders were talking about in today’s session as the terrorism concerns really bringing the market down. the dow looking―storying at -- 10,000,06 -- 10,064, so political unrest a concern. and material and cyclical stocks led lower and everything seemed lower in today’s session. we also saw insurance stocks lower. if you look at the 10 economic groups in the s&p 500 -- material stocks at the bottom of the list. all ten economic groups in the s&p 500 were lower today. nothing really surviving. you saw material stocks sharply lower in the session. also, material stocks, cyclical stocks, somewhat the same thing. some of the cyclical stocks also sharply lower today and material stocks and cyclical stocks tend to perform well when the economy is doing well but as you might have questions about the economy, we did see both areas of those stocks lower. insurance stocks, i mentioned those. a.i.g., one of the biggest drags in the s&p 500. according to morgan stanley, an analyst there, says that a 2002 law would require a.i.g. to pay the first $1.9 billion in losses from a terrorist event before federal funds would kick in and also, it looks like that’s more than twice their world trade center losses and that could add up to many losses for a.i.g. other insurance stocks were also lower. crude oil on the day seeing a little bit of a reprieve. however, airline stocks once again sharply lower and of course those concerns there about any retaliation and more terror concerns. back to you.
>> thank you very much. coattailing on what deb said, we are looking at the a couple cumulative effects of the dow. the dow down 6% since march 1, the benchmark’s biggest rolling recovery as some would call it rather than a one-day decline, but rolling giveback of market value than we’ve seen in more than a year. a couple of charts i put together earlier today, this is the dow, the red bracket there. this weekly charlotte gives you―chart gives you a smoother feel and this is march 1, almost the same level coming in at late january. so from the first of march, we’re down a full 6% for the dow. expanding this graph, taking it out a little bit longer to show you the previous big declines. this one coming down, about a 14% decline, coming in early january of 2003 till the beginning of march and this one here, 17% declines. so clearly, this is something we haven’t seen inside of a year but it’s far from unprecedented in terms of magnitude. just for point of reference, similar declines for the nasdaq. you can see in the upper right here, an 11% decline versus 13 here and 21% here. not unprecedented, but certainly something we haven’t seen in over a calendar year. crude oil futures fell after officials from two opec member states said the group may postpone production cuts planned to go into effect next week. opec had pledged to lower daily production by a million barrels s. qatar’s oil minister says the group wants to stabilize prices. venezuela’s deputy oil minister says he’s concerned high oil prices may hurt the world economy. the two nations represent 12% of the world’s oil-producing nations. global crossing shares jumped today after mexican billionaire carlos slim took a 5% stake in the company. shares of the fiber optic network operator have dropped by almost 2/3 since the company emerged from bankruptcy in december. investors say slim looks for companies or industries with a chance of recovery. still, global crossing says its main businesses will have a wired loss this year as sales fall―a wider loss. on friday, global crossing said exchairman gary winnick and former lawyers will pay $325 million to settle lawsuits over the company’s collapse. more shareholder pressure on disney. the california public employees retirement system and four other pension funds will demand a meeting this week with disney’s board. they plan to press directors to name a successor to chief executive michael eisner. the funds have $460 billion in combined assets and their challenging the board’s decision to keep eisner after the march 3 shareholder meeting. our next guest has been selling some of his basic materials and industrial stocks and buying consumer staples and energy. robert morris, director of equity investments at lord abbett is our guest next.
