Stock Market News for August 30, 2011 - Market News
August 30 2011 - 5:15AM
Zacks
The Greek bank deal, lower than expected damage from hurricane
Irene, and an encouraging consumer spending report, combined
together to push the benchmarks significantly higher on Monday.
However, volumes remained low as Irene kept the traders away from
the Street. It was the insurers that led the gains after Irene
caused less damage than what was feared.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) jumped 2.3% and settled at
11,539.25. The Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500) gained 2.8%
and closed the day at 1,210.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged
3.3% and wrapped up at 2,562.11. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility
Index (VIX) plunged 9.3%. The day was marred by low volumes as
commuters failed to travel to trading stations as the tropical
storm Irene kept them away from work. On the New York Stock
Exchange, consolidated volumes were 3.6 billion, significantly
lower than this year’s average of 4.4 billion. This was also the
lowest level recorded since July 26.
Though Irene disrupted public transport and left Wall Street
understaffed, the hurricane failed to hit the markets as the damage
was lesser than what had been previously expected. Consulting firm
Kinetic Analysis Corp reduced its estimate of the damage caused by
the storm to $7 billion late Sunday from the previously expected
$20 billion. Accordingly, insurers will now have to cover up $3
billion, which is far lesser than what they had to shell out in
2003 in the wake of Hurricane Isabel.
Meanwhile, insurers got a breather when it became clear that they
would have to pay smaller amounts as cover charges post hurricane
Irene. Among the gainers for this sector were The Allstate
Corporation (NYSE:ALL), Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.
(NYSE:HIG), The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV), American
International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG), Selective Insurance Group
Inc. (NYSE:SIGI), Hallmark Financial Services Inc. (NASDAQ:HALL)
and CNA Financial Corporation (NYSE:CNA), and they surged 8.5%,
12.9%, 5.1%, 7.5%, 7.5%, 8.5% and 5.0%, respectively. Insurance and
banking stocks also registered the highest increase among the 10
industry groups in the S&P 500, gaining 4.2%.
The bank deal in Greece upped the momentum further. Two of the
nation’s largest lenders, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and Alpha Bank
announced their plans to merge and paved the way for creating the
largest bank in the country. Greece urgently requires significant
measures to tackle its debt concerns and the government urged the
lenders to merge and help the nation survive the crisis. US-listed
National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE:NBG) sky rocketed 37.7% following
the news, thus contributing to the broader rally.
The consumer spending report also added to the cheer after data
released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed personal
spending had recorded its largest increase in five months in July.
Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) or consumer spending
climbed 0.8%, ahead of the consensus expectation of a rise of 0.6%.
Additionally, “Personal income increased $42.4 billion, or 0.3
percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $32.5
billion, or 0.3 percent, in July”.
In another development, the National Association of Realtors
reported pending home sales had dropped in July, but were above
year-ago levels. According to NAR: “The Pending Home Sales Index, a
forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, slipped 1.3
percent to 89.7 in July from 90.9 in June but is 14.4 percent above
the 78.4 index in July 2010. The data reflects contracts but not
closings”. Investors paid little importance to the decline in July
and the report failed to cause any dent to the broader markets. The
1.3% drop was also in-line with expectations. Striking a positive
note, Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said: “The market can
easily move into a healthy expansion if mortgage underwriting
standards return to normalcy”.
Markets have turned around its bearish nature and bulls are looking
set to enjoy their run. Currently, the Dow is just 0.3% down for
the year and has recovered from the 7.4% yearly loss that it
registered on August 10. Even the S&P 500 has recouped all of
its losses since it touched this year’s low on August 8, following
the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US’s credit rating by a
notch. The index has jumped 8.1% since then.
AMER INTL GRP (AIG): Free Stock Analysis Report
ALLSTATE CORP (ALL): Free Stock Analysis Report
HALLMARK FINL (HALL): Free Stock Analysis Report
HARTFORD FIN SV (HIG): Free Stock Analysis Report
NATL BK GR-ADR (NBG): Free Stock Analysis Report
SELECT INS GRP (SIGI): Free Stock Analysis Report
TRAVELERS COS (TRV): Free Stock Analysis Report
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