Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Pain Continues
The selling continued Wednesday with markets discouraged by earnings reports and crude inventory levels. The Dow fell 131.24 points to close the session at 12,029.06.The SPX gave up 13.12 points to finsh on 1,337.81. We are in the green and with just one trading day to go we are looking good.
Oil prices were in the spotlight Wednesday following the release of the weekly inventory data. For the week ending 13 June, crude inventory levels fell by 1.2 million barrels to 301.0 million. This puts inventory levels 14.2 percent below the year ago period. However, demand for gasoline is off 1.8 percent year on year as consumers look for alternative forms of transportation due record gas prices. Crude futures for August rose $2.67 a barrel to $136.68.
Fedex also got the day off to a sour start. The logistics company announced a loss for the fourth quarter blaming....surprise surprise high oil costs. They also gave a bad outlook for the next quarter.
Once again the market seems to be at a crossroads with the Dow hitting its three month low. Traders don't know whether they are more scared of inflation or slowing growth!! We'll know more by the end of the week.
Until next time.
Oil prices were in the spotlight Wednesday following the release of the weekly inventory data. For the week ending 13 June, crude inventory levels fell by 1.2 million barrels to 301.0 million. This puts inventory levels 14.2 percent below the year ago period. However, demand for gasoline is off 1.8 percent year on year as consumers look for alternative forms of transportation due record gas prices. Crude futures for August rose $2.67 a barrel to $136.68.
Fedex also got the day off to a sour start. The logistics company announced a loss for the fourth quarter blaming....surprise surprise high oil costs. They also gave a bad outlook for the next quarter.
Once again the market seems to be at a crossroads with the Dow hitting its three month low. Traders don't know whether they are more scared of inflation or slowing growth!! We'll know more by the end of the week.
Until next time.
# posted by Paul @ 6:08 PM 
