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Watching a Pommie TV show about Pommie 1980s music (they also included Kylie and Jason as part of the Stock Aitken Waterman clique), I was struck by how much I miss the 80s. Of course like every amazingly good lookin lad at the time, I was a big Duran Duran fan, and also Spandau Ballet (love that name), Go West and Talk Talk, but Adam Ant was the dog's bollocks (that is a GOOD thing).
(Speaking of Adam ant, look at the clip for Prince Charming and you see Yu-Gi-Oh twenty years before the cartoon)
But it struck me - at the same time in Straya, the music scene was absolutely abundant. Midnight Oil, SpyVSpy, Oz Crawl, Cold Chisel, the Angels, Johnny Diesel, Rose Tattoo, Sunnyboys, Men at Work and others held down the Oz Rock end, while Pseudo Echo, Machinations and Eurogliders were more toward the New Romantic. And of course the Models, Noiseworks, Goanna and Gangajang were somewhere in between. And AC/DC was getting used to a new lead singer. And I had albums by each of them.
What an outstanding collection of names that is. I mean seriously - no matter your taste in music, 80's Oz had the lot. (I left out INXS because I hate them, and I left out Split Enz because they were Kiwis).
I seriously don't think there has been a period as rich since then. Bring it back - the whole lot of it.
Economic News
Nothing. Not a solitary sausage.
Fed Open Market Operations
One repurchase operation today - a 3-day repo, $3.75bn all in T-backed, at an average rate of 2.741% (when Fed Funds is 3.5%). In other words they are telegraphing another 50-75bp cut next week - most likely 75.
Headline Indices
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged upwards out of the blocks, due to some company or other beating the (recently downward-revised) analyst guess by a little bit. Within minutes of the open the Dow nudged 12486 - but just didn't have the legs to get to 12500 (and nor did the futures).
The reversal from there was classic nuffie-skinning. Everybody without a brain dove in long in the first ten minutes, then got their throats slashed - slowly - as the thing ground relentlessly lower for the remainder of the session. Overall, the Dowager lost 171.44 points (1.38%) today, closing at 12207.17 points. The index high for the day was 12486.89, while the low was 12185.55 - 300 points below the high, and set pretty much at the close.
25 of the 30 Dow stocks lost ground, and the other five rose (no unchanged stocks).
Major Advancers in the Dow:
- Honeywell (HON) rose 2 (3.56%) to 58.2 on volume of 7.7 million units
- Caterpillar (CAT) rose 0.67 (1.03%) to 65.92 on volume of 8.8 million units
- General Motors (GM) rose 0.18 (0.7%) to 25.8 on volume of 10.1 million units
- McDonalds C (MCD) rose 0.29 (0.54%) to 54.29 on volume of 11.1 million units
- United Technology (UTX) rose 0.08 (0.11%) to 72.64 on volume of 7.5 million units
Major Dow Decliners:
- Merck (MRK) fell 1.85 (-3.73%) to 47.71 on volume of 62.6 million units
- Home Depot (HD) dipped 1.09 (-3.69%) to 28.47 on volume of 19.6 million units
- AIG (AIG) slid 1.86 (-3.38%) to 53.18 on volume of 16.3 million units
- American Express (AXP) lost 1.59 (-3.38%) to 45.52 on volume of 10.9 million units
- Intel (INTC) fell 0.69 (-3.33%) to 20 on volume of 101.9 million units
Most Traded Dow stocks -
- Microsoft (MSFT) down 0.31 (-0.93) to 32.94 on volume of 193.4 million units
- Intel (INTC) down 0.69 (-3.33) to 20 on volume of 101.9 million units
- Citigroup (C) down 0.69 (-2.52) to 26.64 on volume of 101.8 million units
- Merck (MRK) lost 1.85 (-3.73) to 47.71 on volume of 62.6 million units
- General Electric (GE) fell 0.60 (-1.73) to 34.05 on volume of 47.8 million units
For the week the Dow added 108 points - when you consider the schizophrenic gyrations of the first three sessions, of the shortened week, yo would be surprised to see that the overall tab was under 1%.
The S&P500 Index lost 21.46 points (1.59%) to 1330.61 points. The index high for the day was 1368.56, while the low was 1327.50; it's really quite strange that neither NYSE-centred index used a Picken as a turning point (although the Dow closed pretty much on a Quadruple Picken - something divisible by 100)..
The Nasdaq Composite lost 34.72 points (1.47%) to 2326.20 points. This is the index that noted the most Pickens today - the high was 2408.22, while the low was 2322.56. Not exact Pickens by any stretch, but not far off
The Nasdaq100 lost 37.75 points (2.07%) to 1789.17 points. The index high for the day was 1864.00, while the low was 1788.07.
The CBOE Volatiity Index advanced 1.48 points (5.33%) to 29.26 points, while the CBOE Nasdaq100 Volatilty Index advanced 1.35 points (4.19%) to 33.57 points. To think, the VIX was under 10 when we recommended buying VIX futures way way way back.
I can't be arsed doing the volume stuff today - I still have to do that by hand (I am testing the scripts this weekend and won't have to do anything humdrum from Monday onwards).
| Major Market Statistics | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 12207.17 | -171.44 | -1.38% |
| S&P500 Index | 1330.61 | -21.46 | -1.59% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 2326.20 | -34.72 | -1.47% |
| Nasdaq100 | 1789.17 | -37.75 | -2.07% |
| CBOE Volatiity Index | 29.26 | +1.48 | 5.33% |
| CBOE Nasdaq100 Volatilty Index | 33.57 | +1.35 | 4.19% |
| NYSE Total Volume | 4.6bn | - | - |
| Nasdaq Total Volume | 2.6bn | - | - |
Bellwethers
The nine-stock group that makes up the Rant bellwethers declined on average by 3.4%. The fallout occurred as follows:
- General Electric (GE) down $0.6 (1.73%) to $34.05 on volume of 47.77 million units.
- Citigroup (C) down $0.69 (2.52%) to $26.64 on volume of 101.81 million units.
- Wal-Mart (WMT) down $0.82 (1.68%) to $48.09 on volume of 23.93 million units.
- IBM (IBM) down $2.57 (2.4%) to $104.34 on volume of 9.03 million units.
- Intel (INTC) down $0.69 (3.33%) to $20.00 on volume of 101.89 million units.
- Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.91 (3.62%) to $24.20 on volume of 77.16 million units.
- Google (GOOG) down $8.09 (1.41%) to $566.40 on volume of 6.9 million units.
- Fannie Mae (FNM) down $2.42 (7.08%) to $31.77 on volume of 20.99 million units.
- Freddie Mac (FRE) down $2.32 (7.25%) to $29.68 on volume of 19.94 million units.
Other Indices of Interest...
The Banks Index lost 1.8 (2.08%) to 86.38 points. Index volume totalled 453.5 million shares. Of the 24 index components, 1 advanced, with volume in the lonely advancer totalling 8.9 million units. All of the remaining 23 stocks in the index fell, with total volume traded of 444.6 million shares.
Major movers in the same direction as the index:
- Washington Mutual (WM), down 0.8 (4.72%) to $16.15 on volume of 27.2 million shares
- Bank Of Ny Mellon (BK), down 1.67 (3.66%) to $43.92 on volume of 9.2 million shares
- State Street Cp (STT), down 2.92 (3.58%) to $78.72 on volume of 4.6 million shares
- Comerica Inc (CMA), down 1.39 (3.37%) to $39.84 on volume of 3.9 million shares
The Semiconductor Index lost 6.61 (1.86%) to 354.45 points. Index volume totalled 307.1 million shares. Of the 18 index components, 4 advanced, with volume in advancers totalling 56.6 million units. The remaining 14 stocks in the index finished in the red, with total volume traded of 250.4 million shares.
Major movers in the same direction as the index:
- Micron Technology (MU), down 0.44 (6.29%) to $6.55 on volume of 17.1 million shares
- Adv Micro Devices (AMD), down 0.45 (5.94%) to $7.13 on volume of 27.6 million shares
- Sandisk Cp (SNDK), down 1.13 (4.22%) to $25.62 on volume of 10.8 million shares
- Xilinx Inc (XLNX), down 0.77 (3.48%) to $21.35 on volume of 9.5 million shares
The ChildKiller ("Defence") Index lost 1.79 (0.49%) to 363.15 points. Index volume totalled 80.6 million shares. Of the 17 index components, 7 advanced, with volume in advancers totalling 16.1 million units. Of the remaining 10 stocks in the index, all fell, with total volume traded of 64.5 million shares.
Major movers in the same direction as the index:
- Embraer Empresa B (ERJ), down 1.1 (2.61%) to $40.99 on volume of 570.1 thousand shares
- Gencorp Inc (GY), down 0.28 (2.57%) to $10.62 on volume of 278 thousand shares
- Gen Dynamics Cp (GD), down 1.96 (2.36%) to $81.11 on volume of 2.7 million shares
- Gen Electric Co (GE), down 0.6 (1.73%) to $34.05 on volume of 47.8 million shares
The Gold Bugs Index lost 0.4 (0.22%) to 185.49 points. Index volume totalled 108.2 million shares. Of the 16 index components, 5 advanced, with volume in advancers totalling 53.7 million units. The other 11 stocks in the index finished theweek on a negative note, with total volume traded of 54.5 million shares.
Major movers in the same direction as the index:
- Gold Fields Ltd A (GFI), down 1.54 (9.22%) to $15.16 on volume of 12.7 million shares
- Harmony Gold Mng (HMY), down 0.84 (7.16%) to $10.90 on volume of 4.4 million shares
- Anglogold Ashanti (AU), down 2.12 (4.69%) to $43.05 on volume of 3.2 million shares
- Pan Amer Silver C (PAAS), down 0.89 (2.46%) to $35.23 on volume of 1.4 million shares
The Oil Services Index lost 2.44 (0.93%) to 261.62 points. Index volume totalled 92.4 million shares. Of the 15 index components, 6 advanced, with volume in advancers totalling 39.1 million units.The remaining 9 stocks in the inde fell, with total volume traded of 53.3 million shares.
Major movers in the same direction as the index:
- Schlumberger (SLB), down 2.5 (3.11%) to $77.82 on volume of 13.4 million shares
- Noble Corp (NE), down 1.27 (2.76%) to $44.80 on volume of 7.2 million shares
- Oceaneering Intl (OII), down 1.5 (2.43%) to $60.18 on volume of 638.6 thousand shares
- Cameron Intl (CAM), down 1.07 (2.38%) to $43.94 on volume of 3 million shares
