Market Overview: Rocky Week for the Market

Written by Tchoudomir Goranov 

Market Snapshot

Dow Jones Industrials:   13,806.70       +134.78

NASDAQ:                       2,804              +53.33

S&P 500:                         1,535.28         +20.88

The Stock Market sank on the dreary anniversary of Black Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 366.94 points to 13,522.02, Nasdaq composite index dropped 74.15 points to 2,725.16 and The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 39.45 to 1,500.63.

Problems continued for the markets as earnings came from Merrill Lynch & CO. that reporting a loss of $2.31 billion due to a $7.9 billion dollar writedown caused by the current credit crisis. Oil hit a new record on Thursday, climbing to $90.46 a barrel after the announcement by OPEC that production will not be increasing as fast as was predicted and would not announce new output quotas.

It was the tech sector that came to the rescue and gave a slight boost to the markets towards the end of the week as Apple and Microsoft reported blowout earnings. Apple saw a 67 percent jump in profits while Microsoft saw a giant leap in revenue by 27 percent due to their smash hit video game “Halo 3” and stable growth in the P.C. market. Given the optimistic outlook for the fourth quarter given by both companies, many investors are looking to enter these two hot names. However, I feel that between now and November there will be a slight correction in the market because of the incredible run the Market as experienced these past months and the increasing oil prices which many are predicting will hit $100 dollars a barrel. I would wait for a dip in the tech stocks before entering. 

Look out for next week: The Fed meeting is on the 31st and investors are looking for a rate cut to help boost the markets.