Career News 24/7: STOCKS CRATER, DOW FALLS 208 POINTS: Here's What You Need To Know, May 31, 2013

Friday, May 31, 2013

STOCKS CRATER, DOW FALLS 208 POINTS: Here's What You Need To Know, May 31, 2013

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Friday, May 31, 2013

Things got really ugly during the last few minutes of the trading session.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 15,115, -208.9 pts, -1.3%
S&P 500: 1,630, -23.6 pts, -1.4%
NASDAQ: 3,455, -35.3 pts, -1.0%

And now the top stories:

After spending a moment in the green earlier today, stocks took a turn for the worse, and the selling accelerated during the last few minutes of the day.
Among the crazy analyst calls today was Jonathan Krinsky's warning of the dreaded "Hindenberg Omen," a combination of technical signals that some people warn portends a market crash.
Strategists were also making noise about the bond markets. "[H]istory shows that major breakouts in equity markets tend to coincide with major inflection points in bond yields," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Michael Hartnett. "This is now happening."
However, UBS's Mike Schumacher thinks the bond bears are overreacting. "In our opinion, Treasury yields have risen too far, too quickly," he wrote in a note titled "Buy Treasuries."
The April personal income and spending report was disappointing. Income was flat, which was worse than the modest 0.1% gain expected by economists. Spending unexpectedly fell by 0.2%. "Despite surging prices for homes and equities, consumer spending is contracting," said economic bear Lakshman Achuthan as he reiterated his recession call. "Quite simply, the wealth effect is rendered moot by languishing incomes."
"The 0.2% m/m decline in the nominal value of U.S. monthly consumption in April is not quite as bad as is looks, since it partly reflects the drop back in gasoline prices," said Capital Economics' Paul Ashworth offering a bit of optimism. "Overall, a sobering report for those expecting GDP growth to accelerate sharply."
But there was also some good news today. The Chicago PMI report surged to 58.7 in May from 49.0 last month. Economists were looking for a reading of 50.0. "In light of the Chicago PMI, we are upgrading our ISM forecast to 53.0 from our earlier forecast of 50.0," said Deutsche Bank's Joe LaVorgna.
Consumer confidence jumped to 84.5 in May from 76.4 in April. Economists were looking for a reading of 83.7.
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