Wall Street jumps , as investors scoop up beaten-down tech, retail and commodity stocks, and shrug off AIG's credit woes.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 0.5%, according to early tallies, with weakness in AIG offset by strength in General Motors, reporting results after the close.
YIPIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Im gonna get rich i'm investing all my money in stocks right now !
HEY why not as soon as new president is elected things have to get better and find that new business or product thats going to explode and your a millionaire overnight !
All the information is availble in your local library how to do it on yourown without a stock broker so you save thousands of dollars in fees and use that money to make more money!
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index gained 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) climbed 0.7%.
Stocks had slumped in the morning after Dow component AIG's regulatory filing raised bets that the insurer will have to write off more bad bets on mortgage debt.
The company said in a filing that that the value of its risky debt portfolio has plunged more than it initially thought, and that it is going to have to change the way it values certain complex credit vehicles.Full story
Lil Scrappy - Money In The Bank
AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) shares plunged 11% and dragged on other financial stocks throughout the session.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in the financial sector," said Dave Hinnenkamp, CEO at KDV Wealth Management.
Also on the tech front, Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500) and Nortel Networks (NT) are reportedly in talks about a deal to combine their wireless-infrastructure units, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Poor results from the banking sector in the fourth quarter are likely to lead to the biggest drop in quarterly profits for large U.S. companies in six years.
With 73% of the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 having reported results, overall fourth-quarter earnings are on track to fall 20.1% from a year ago, according to the latest figures from Thomson Financial.
That's far worse than what had been expected as recently as Jan. 1, when analysts were predicting a drop of 9.4%
"We're really seeing the impact of the credit crunch here," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.
Unfortunately for investors, the economic slowdown is likely to make things worse for the next two quarters. Thomson is forecasting a slight drop in profits in the first quarter and only a 1% increase in second-quarter earnings.
There are thousands of stocks out there. Save time (and make a profit) by focusing on these 70 selected by Money Magazine editor at large Michael Sivy. (more)
