Stock Market News for November 13, 2009

A rebounding dollar and persisting worries about the economy kept investors on a wait-and-watch mode and stocks fell broadly as weakness in energy shares, precipitated by reports of flush U.S. reserves, weighed on sentiments.  In a broad based decline, major stock indexes fell about 1% from their 13-month highs. 

The strength in US dollar, based upon its safe-haven appeal, undermined investors' appetites for riskier, high-yielding assets such as equities as upside guidance from DJIA components Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard failed to stem the retreat.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 94 points, or 0.9%, to close at 10,197.47.  The S&P 500 retreated 11 points, or 1%, to close at 1,087.24, after climbing to an intraday high of 1,101.97.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index retreated 18 points, or 0.8%, to settle at 2,149.02.  On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues outpaced those that advanced in price by a four-to-one margin as volume slowed to 828 million shares.

Twenty-six of the thirty Dow average components ended lower, with energy and financial shares leading the decliners.  The CBOE Vix volatility gauge jumped 5.21% to 24.24.  Gold prices fell $8 to $1106.60. 

On the S&P 500, shares of financial companies were the second-steepest decliners among the 10 industry groups, falling 1.8%.  Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) dropped 2.3% to $16.06 and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) fell 2.3% to $43.30.  Energy shares slumped 2% and led the decliners among 10 groups.  The falling shares wiped off an earlier advance in tech shares that was fueled by Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (NYSE:HPQ) takeover of 3Com Corp. (NASDAQ:COMS).

Meanwhile, the US Treasury said budget deficit widened to $176.4 billion in October, the largest October shortfall on record and the fifth largest monthly deficit ever.  Economists had expected a $150 billion shortfall.

Read the full analyst report on JPM

Read the full analyst report on BAC

Read the full analyst report on HPQ

Read the full analyst report on COMS