Market Wrap: EU Summit Flops; Macro Pressure Mounts; Facebook IPO Refunds; Verifone in the Slumps


FREE Breaking News Alerts from StreetInsider.com!

E-mail Address
May 24, 2012 5:44 PM EDT Send to a Friend
Market wrap-up for May 24th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 33.6 to 12,529.75; S&P 500 up 1.8 to 1,320.68; Nasdaq down 10.7 to 2,839.38

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right..: Markets saw some weakness following a European Union summit this week which saw divergence on bringing a unified euro-based bond to the table. Supporters included France's Hollande and Italy's Monti, while Germany's Merkel was opposed. Traders will likely now focus on Greek elections coming up in a few weeks, which all but has the future of Greece as a euro-zone member hanging in the results.

    China's preliminary Manufacturing PMI fell from 49.3 in April to 48.7 in May. Meanwhile, the euro-zone composite index came in at 45.9 in May, down from 46.7 the prior month.

    Otherwise, some tepid earnings numbers out of tech added to negative sentiment in that sector, with many finishing in the red Thursday.

  • Check yer egos at the door: Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) said it will be holding a conference call today in order to discuss possible options with investors and traders about the Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) IPO. The firm said there will be a number of price adjustments to be made. No speculation yet on the impact the adjustments will have on Morgan Stanley's bottom-line numbers, but analyst should be chiming in within a few days.

  • With a PayPal partnership help?: Verifone (NYSE: PAY) is lower in late trading following second-quarter 2012 results which produced EPS of 64 cents and revs of $472 million, both beating views, but guidance for the third quarter and fiscal 2012 which failed to meet expectations. For more color on the numbers, click here.

  • Hiring slows, jobless claims become stagnant: Initial claims fell by 2,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 370,000, down from an upwardly revised reading of 372,000 in the prior week.

    Economists surveyed by Reuters and Bloomberg were looking for a reading of 370,000, while broader Street expectations were looking for a drop to 365,000.

  • Cola is cola...right?: Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) moved higher on the session following a positive Barron's mention.
Click here to go to Streetinsider's Full News Feed and never miss a beat!

Join StreetInsider.com FREE and get immediately alerted when news breaks on your stocks and other market items - JOIN NOW
*NEW - Download StreetInsider's FREE iPhone and iPad App - Click Here


You May Also Be Interested In


Related Categories

Market Check

Related Entities

Morgan Stanley, Standard & Poor's, Barron's, Earnings

Add Your Comment