Stocks Bob Around the Flat Line
Updated from 11:51 a.m. EST
Stocks on Wall Street briefly broke into positive territory Friday afternoon as it seemed more likely U.S. automakers would receive temporary, alternative life support from the federal government.
Lately, the major indices were trading mixed and roughly flat. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 47 points at 8517, and the
S&P 500
was edging lower by 5.5 points at 868. The
Nasdaq
also up 9 points at 1517.
A federal rescue plan for Detroit's
Big Three automakers
failed to pass the Senate late Thursday after the United Auto Workers union refused Republicans' demand for aggressive wage reductions. The House had already approved the plan to provide aid to
Ford
(F) - Get Report
,
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
and
Chrysler
.
The Senate voted 52-35 against the bailout in a procedural vote. It needed 60 votes to pass.
According to Washington officials, the bill might not resurface until the new year.
Chrysler and GM, though, have said they might have mere weeks of sustainability left. Even before the vote failed,
hired advisers to help it decide whether to file for bankruptcy, according to a report in
The Wall Street Journal
Thursday night.
"It would have been a stop-gap measure for a few months, not a bailout," says Michael Strauss, chief economist and market strategist, Commonfund. "But Washington officials are politicians, and unfortunately they focused on a political agenda, not a solution to the problem."
In response to the bill's failure, the White House said it might now be willing to use money drawn from the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, known as the
Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP). The
Treasury
also said it's prepared to pitch in.
"The systemic effect of what
letting the automakers file for Chapter 11 would produce is pretty dangerous," says Strauss, noting the third-party implications and how those in turn would effect competitors, the rest of the industry and the economy.
Investors reacted to the likelihood of the automaker aid throughout the week and into Friday. "The market sold off pretty heavily
Friday morning on worries that we wouldn't have anything happen, there was some recovery on the fact that you're putting them in intensive care until January -- now you're left with a lot of uncertainty," says Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management.
Stone says that the longer the measure is put off, the better the chance that the automakers are going to get help. We're unlikely to see any positive economic data between now and year-end, and as numbers deteriorate lawmakers will be more encouraged to avoid the grave economic consequences of letting these companies fail, he says.
In other autos news, No. 2 Japanese automaker
Honda
(HMC) - Get Report
said it's making more production cuts in North America as it adjusts to lower demand. Shares of the company, which is striking production by another 119,000 vehicles after a lesser cut earlier this year, were losing ground on Friday.
A smattering of economic data also hit the market early Friday. Retail sales fell 1.8% in November overall and 1.6% excluding automobiles, while the consensus was for greater declines of 2% and 1.8%, respectively.
The so-called control group, which is made up of retail sales excluding sales of automobiles, gasoline and building materials,
increased
0.5%. This figure plays a prominent role in estimations on quarterly data on personal consumption expenditures, Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist for Miller Tabak, wrote on his
.
"It is obvious what is happening here: the fall in the price of gasoline has increased consumer purchasing power substantially," says Crecenzi.
Strauss agrees that, in an interesting twist, the sharp drop in energy prices may be providing help to other areas of nondiscretionary spending. "There were some interesting rebounds in a period of extremely challenging economic conditions," he says.
Moreover, according other data released on Friday, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index increased to 59.1 from 55.3.
Consumer sentiment is still structurally weak, but this bounce "is impressive given how horrendously bad the labor markets have been," says Strauss. Again, the reason likely stems back to inflation expectations and the fact that consumers were paying less gas and heating oil.
"There may be an aspect of consumer confidence in middle America or industries that aren't tertiary to the financial and housing markets -- people in those areas might feel a bit better on a weekly basis because they're spending less for gasoline," he says.
Meanwhile, the Producer Price Index, which measures prices of goods at the wholesale level, fell 2.2%, slightly more than economists had predicted. The core PPI increased 0.1%, in line with expectations.
The biggest news on Wall Street Friday morning, however, was the arrest of market-maker
on charges of securities fraud. The SEC alleges that the 70-year-old Wall Street fixture lost some $50 billion of client money in what amounted to a giant Ponzi scheme.
"Did we need to lose anymore confidence in the financial system?" Stone asks. "I don't know how much it's hurting -- but it's not helping."
In company news, late Thursday,
(BAC) - Get Report
said it will cut up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years, including some from newly acquired investment bank
Merrill Lynch
(MER)
. Earlier in the day, the Labor Department reported the number of new claims for jobless benefits increased in the week ended Dec. 6 to a 26-year high.
Shifting to commodities, crude oil was falling $1.19 to $46.79 a barrel. Gold was losing $3.20 to $823.40 an ounce.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities recently falling in price. The 10-year was down by 27 0.5/32to yield 2.7%, and the 30-year fell 1 21/32, yielding 3.13%. The dollar was weaker against the euro and the yen, and recently stronger against the pound.
Overseas, European markets were down -- the FTSE in London and DAX in Frankfurt gave up 2.5% and 2.8%, respectively. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both ended lower.
Copyright 2008 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.
