Reply #67: blather

[ozymandius]

Have a great evening folks!

ozy :hi:

4:20PM: Fading after lunch, the market's major averages' finished at solidly negative session lows, sunken by the Delphi (DPH 0.38 -0.74) bankruptcy effect and by an altogether lack of leadership amid what appears to be a wait-and-see stance ahead of the Q3 earnings season that officially begins with Alcoa's (AA 22.72 -0.32) post-bell report. Extending 2.7% declines in both the Dow and S&P and a 2.9% dip in the Nasdaq last week, the inflation-flustered market has not yet shifted its focus to the fact that Q3 aggregate earnings are expected still to rise 15%, an expectation that should ultimately provide support to the market. With respect to sector performance, all ten closed in the red - with Utilities (-1.6%) surpassing Energy (-1.4%), in terms of laggards, late in the day. As the second-best year-to-date performer, the Utilities sector suffered profit-taking attempts that left all of its 33 constituents underwater, most of which posted losses in excess of 1.0%. An article in the Wall Street Journal that highlighted the effect of rising interest rates on utilities issues perhaps made matters worse. Prolonged profit taking, intensified by a sector downgrade to Underweight from Market Weight at Citigroup, as well as extended pullbacks in energy prices, defined trading within the Energy sector and added to the approximate 8% loss it chalked last week. After plunging 28% last week, gasoline futures eased further today, while crude - which lost 7% last week - and natural gas also continued to deteriorate. The Tech sector (0.8%) placed third on the laggard list, shoved below the flat line by semiconductors' 3.1% dip following a Q2 sales warning from Xilinx (XLNX 22.77 -4.35) and a 6.4% slide in the IT construction and services group that Unisys' (UIS 6.01 -0.82)...