WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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Stocks fall as investors await bank bailout plan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-23 00:01 The yield on the Treasury's 3-month Treasury bill was at 0.93 percent Monday, down slightly from 0.94 percent late Friday, indicating that investors were still willing to take low returns on a safe asset. However, the yield was a far cry from yields around zero at the height of last week's frenetic buying, however; yields move in the opposite direction from price. Short-term Treasurys are seen as the absolute safest place to place cash. The Treasury's 2-year note's yield was at 2.23 percent, up from 2.14 percent Friday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark Treasury was higher, at 3.89 percent compared with 3.82 percent Friday. In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 206.36, or 1.81 percent, to 11,182.08. The retreat comes after the stock market's best two-day session in years so some retrenchment, especially amid the anxiety on the Street, wasn't unexpected. Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 25.07, or 2.00 percent, to 1,230.01, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 43.56, or 1.92 percent, to 2,230.34. The market did get some good news from Microsoft Corp., which said it plans to repurchase as much as $40 billion of its shares. The software maker said it completed a previous $40 billion buyback plan. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to 13 cents from 11 cents. Microsoft rose $1, or 4 percent, to $26.16. Morgan Stanley said it signed a letter of intent to sell its stake to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and that the price of the stake would be based on Morgan's book value after Mitsubishi completes due diligence. Morgan Stanley rose $2.68, or 9.9 percent, to $29.89. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs fell 25 cents to $129.55 following announcement of its move to become a commercial bank. The dollar was mixed against most other major currencies, while gold prices rose. Investors were also watching rebounding oil prices. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose $3.06 to $107.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, crude oil jumped by more than $6 a barrel to break back above the $100-a-barrel mark. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 347.8 million shares. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 17.21, or 2.28 percent, to 736.52. Overseas markets were mixed. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index climbed 1.4 percent to 12,090.59 points, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.6 percent to 19,632.20. In European trading, London's FTSE fell 0.34 percent, Germany's DAX declined 0.47 percent and France's CAC 40 fell 0.66 percent. |
