Stock market plunges as bad news mounts


Down arrowThe stock market had its biggest drop today in a month as investors absorbed a plethora of earnings disappointments, cuts in profit outlooks and pessimistic comments about the economy.

The statistics speak for themselves. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 340 points. Bloomberg News notes that, "Ten industry groups in the S&P 500 decreased today, with 458 of the index's members posting declines. Thirteen stocks dropped for every one that gained on the New York Stock Exchange."

Bad news was so plentiful today that it's tough to single out one reason for the market's sell-off.
Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) reported disappointing results and lowered its earnings forecast. Honeywell Inc. (NYSE: HON) spooked investors with talk of slowing growth. Shares of Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) fell after the oil field services company said it drilling projects would be delayed. Even shares of 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), which reported better-than-expected results, got sucked into the downward spiral as investors were concerned about a planned price cut for its optical films.

Then there's the continued worry about consumer spending that hurt companies ranging from Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) to Domino's Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) to Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) this week. Financial shares continue to get pummeled on concerns about the subprime mortgage meltdown. Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) reported ugly earnings earlier today. About the only sector that seems to be holding on is tech, thanks to yet another blowout quarter from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Wall Street isn't just worried about the future, it's nearly petrified waiting for the next shoe to drop from the flow of earnings reports coming over the next few weeks. Pundits, such as David Joy of RIverSource Investments, weren't expecting things to get better anytime soon.``When you have earnings expectations that are negative going into the third-quarter reporting season and you start to get some disappointments on top of that after five years of double-digit earnings growth, this market's going to struggle,'' Joy told Bloomberg News.
Worst of all, the decline came on the 20th anniversary of the 1987 crash., further jolting the market's already fragile psychology. Investors can't help but compare and contrast. People are now freely using the dreaded "R" world.

"It's been a pretty tough day," Federated Investors market strategist Linda Duessel, told Reuters. "People are saying there could be a recession because Caterpillar gave some cautionary comments."

The ball now is squarely in the court of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Is there a case for another rate cut at the end of the month? We'll have to wait and see. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Trick or Treat."

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 05:22 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328912520720 ms.