From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : Monday marked an extremely ugly session on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 falling 4.7% -- marking the largest one-day percent drop since the first session following the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Losses were driven by severe turmoil in the financial sector –- Lehman Brothers (LEH 0.21, -3.44) filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch (MER 17.06, +0.01) sold itself to Bank of America (BAC 26.55, -7.19) and AIG (AIG 54.76, -7.38) is looking for a massive amount of cash in an attempt to stave off failure.
The S&P 500 closed at its lowest level since 2005 and is now down 18.8% year-to-date and down 24.3% from its October 2007 all-time high.
The financial sector (-10.4%) took the brunt of the selling interest, although weakness was broad-based with all ten economic sectors posting a loss. Decliners outpaced advancers by a whopping 81-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. A total of 1.88 billion shares exchanged hands on the NYSE, which would normally be considered heavy volume, but is somewhat light considering the session's developments.
Lehman Brothers filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after no buyers were willing to save the troubled 158-year-old firm due to a lack of a government backstop. None of Lehman's broker-dealer subsidiaries will be included in the bankruptcy and will continue to operate. Lehman listed $613 billion in debt, which is the largest bankruptcy on record according to reports.
My Comments - First off AIG is now a $4.76 stock - which simply points out that you should never take anything you read at face value. Of interest to me was that if we look back to the last one day loss of this magnitude which was supposedly after 9/11 that it took 4 more sessions before the market made its September bottom:
It was not until October 2, 2002 that the market made an ultimate major bottom. Now back to the Briefing.com commentary:
4:01PM Plexus awarded manufacturing contract with Kirby Lester (PLXS) 22.48 -0.82 : PLXS announced that the co has been awarded the primary contract to manufacture Kirby Lester pharmacy automation systems in its Buffalo Grove, IL facility. Kirby Lester is a provider of automated tablet machines, offering a full line of counting, dispensing and verification systems for pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and a variety of industries.
11:34AM MEMC Elec reports that their Pasadena facility does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage from Hurricane Ike (WFR) 33.06 -1.28 : Co reports that their Pasadena facility does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage. Co maintained power throughout the storm and the occupancy crew that stayed on site through this period is safe. Co's restart activities commenced as planned over the weekend, however, they have been notified of raw material delays by their suppliers due to their own startup difficulties. Co is working closely with their suppliers to understand and overcome these delays. They are not updating guidance at this time.
11:34AM MEMC Elec provides status update post Hurricane Ike of its facility in Pasadena; does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage (WFR) 33.00 -1.35 : Co provided an update on the status of its facility in Pasadena, Texas, which was threatened by Hurricane Ike. "Pasadena facility does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage. We maintained power throughout the storm and the occupancy crew that stayed on site through this period is safe. Our restart activities commenced as planned over the weekend, however, we have been notified of raw material delays by our suppliers due to their own startup difficulties. We are working closely with our suppliers to understand and overcome these delays. We are not updating guidance at this time."
9:04AM KEMET announces the sale of its Wet Tantalum assets (KEM) 1.09 : Co announces that it has sold its Wet Tantalum assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) for $35.2 mln and other consideration in the form of a three-year term loan of $15 mln. Sales generated by these assets during the co's fiscal-year ended March 31, 2008 were ~$16.0 mln and $4.4 mln during the quarter ended June 30, 2008. Closing is scheduled to occur by the close of business today.
09:31 am Mattson initiated with a Hold at Needham: . Needham initiates MTSN with a Hold saying while there are good opportunities in etch, they believe Mattson is stretched too thin with too many products/ platforms to support. Firm believes consensus estimates for 2009 are too high, and project several quarters of losses ahead. While MTSN is trading at below fair value of $6 per share, the firm says they would wait for signs of new etch penetration and/or a stronger rebound before getting aggressive. |
