One Wild, Wild Day on Wall Street
Stocks zig, zag on the first day of a new quarter; very erratic trading today.
July 1, 2008— -- NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street began the third quarter with an erratic session Tuesday as a mix of news made it clear the country is still deep in economic problems but may have some positive trends -- including some surprisingly good June sales for General Motors Corp.
Prices rose early in the session, fell sharply for much of the day and then recovered in late afternoon. The uneven performance wasn't surprising -- some bargain hunting was to be expected after a dismal first half.
Still, the session brought more discouraging news for investors: Oil rose again toward record high levels, a report showed that U.S. manufacturers are still under duress and Ford Motor Co. said its June sales tumbled. This all raised the market's fears that the economy -- still reeling from soaring commodities prices and the lingering credit crisis -- is not any closer to turning around.
Yet GM's sales, while falling 18.2 percent for the month, came in above analysts' forecasts, retaining Detroit's lead over Toyota and sending the automaker's shares higher. GM's news was in sharp contrast to the dismal results reported earlier by Ford Motor Co., where a 27.9 percent plunge in sales for the month sent the company's stock to its lowest point in decades.
And while the Institute for Supply Management had an overall disappointing report on manufacturing in June, it also reported strong exports for U.S. factories.
Shortly before the close, the Dow Jones industrial average, down more than 150 points earlier, rose 17.43, or 0.15 percent, to 11,367.44, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.07, or 0.24 percent, to 1,283.07, and the Nasdaq composite was up 8.91, or 0.39 percent, to 2,301.89.
The market may have gotten a technical kick upward, when the S&P 500 fell to 1,260.68, its lowest point since July 2006. When the index, the one most closely followed by market professionals, falls to a target level set by traders, buyers tend to come back to stocks. Volume was light, and that also likely contributed to the price swings.
