Beige Book Helps Steady Stocks While Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Silicon Labs (SLAB) Fall

Posted: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 4:16 PM EDT
By: Market Intelligence Center Staff

Closing out the day... Stocks bounced back from an afternoon swoon after the Federal Reserve's latest report on the U.S. economy, and after President Barack Obama announced new initiatives aimed at businesses amid a recovery he acknowledged "has been painfully slow." The market's reaction to the White House's latest attempts to jump-start the economy, which includes a mix of tax cuts and injections to rebuild outdated infrastructure across the U.S., was subdued. The Fed's "beige book" report on economic activity throughout the country was also greeted with caution, with investors having long anticipated a downgrading of the economic outlook. In the report, the Fed pointed to widespread signs of slowing across the country. Tomorrow the July Trade Balance will be watched closely to help determine how much net trade contributes to third quarter GDP. Analysts expect the trade deficit to narrow to around $47.0 billion in July from $49.9 billion the month before. Also tomorrow, Initial Claims for the week ending September 4 should edge down to 470,000 after falling to 472,000 the week before. Among the high volume stocks today Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Cree (CREE), UDR Inc (UDR), Visa (V) and Silicon Labs (SLAB) moved lower while Symantec (SYMC), MGM Resorts (MGM), NetApp (NTAP), Ciena (CIEN) and AK Steel (AKS) posted gains. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index closed the day down 0.55 at $23.25, a 2.31% decrease for the day. The Put/Call Volume Ratio is at 0.80 while the Put/Call Open Interest ratio is at 0.91. [InvestorsKeyhole, various news and data sources]