Market Wrap: China's Trimmed Outlook; GM Goes Natural...Gas; BP Bebops Another Settlement

Market wrap-up for March 5th

End of the Day: Dow Jones down 14.8 to 12,962.81; Nasdaq down 25.7 to 2,950.48; S&P 500 down 5.3 to 1,364.33

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• China slowing down: Earlier Monday, Chinese regulators revised their economic growth target for 2012 from 8 percent to 7.5 percent. This marks the first target change since as far back as 2005.
  
  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced the reduction in his state-of-the-nation speech given earlier Monday in Beijing.
  
  Notably, coal companies like Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) and Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) took some hits on the day, as China is arguably one of the world's largest consumers of "the other black gold."
  
  
• If you didn't see this one coming..: Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) CEO Scott Thompson is said to be mulling massive headcount reductions stemming from a restructuring of the company, according to reports out early Monday. AllThingsD said cuts might come as soon as the end of the month and focus mainly in the large products organization.
  
  Other areas potentially in the crosshairs include: public relations and marketing, research, marginal businesses and weaker regional efforts.
  
  
• Not sure what analysts were looking at on this one: BP plc (NYSE: BP) entered a settlement with businesses and individuals related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig incident. According to reports, BP and the groups have settled for $7.8 billion, significantly lower than the $14 billion estimated by analysts leading up to the event. Accordingly, many analysts expect BP shares to rise about 5 percent over the week following relief of the overhang.
  
  For more color on the settlement, click here.
  
  
• The gassy autos: General Motors (NYSE: GM), fresh off of halting production of its Chevy Volt, unveiled two new pickups designed to run on gasoline or compressed natural gas (CNG). The two models -- Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 -- will get impressive mileage in comparison with some rivals. Chrysler has a CNG Ram which gets 255 miles before clicking over to an 8-gallon gasoline tank for an additional 112 milts. GM's trucks will get about 650 miles total.
  
  Though CNG is relatively cheap right now, what with supply gluts from a mild winter, it wasn't clear whether or not the GM trucks would come equipped with an integrated baked bean warmer/travel bowl or if that would be an optional accessory.
  
  
• Economic Data:

Factory Orders for January 2011: down 1 percent, from a gain of 1.4 percent prior and the consensus of a 1.9 percent dip; and

ISM Services for February: Index at 57.3, from 56.8 prior and the consensus of 56.0Click here to go to Streetinsider's Full News Feed and never miss a beat!

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