Market Wrap: iDisappointed; Goldman Loses Luster; Europe's Bigger Package; Spain Gets Zorro Treatment

Market wrap-up for October 18th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 180 to 11,577.05; Nasdaq up 42.5 to 2,657.43; S&P 500 up 24.5 to 1,225.38

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

• When the going gets tough: Stocks closed higher Tuesday, as reports from U.K.'s The Guardian have France and Germany ready to agree on a €2 trillion bailout fund. The report also had the plan getting better attention after Moody's warned it might place France's AAA credit rating on review, and potentially in la guillotine! The rumor seems unclear at this time as another source has reported this chatter is completely false.
  
  
• A worm in the...: Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) reported a rare quarter miss today. Coming in with EPS of $7.05 on revenue of $28.27 billion, both missed views calling for earnings of $7.28 per share on revenue of $29.45 billion. CNBC noted this was the first time Apple missed earnings since 2004, but others have put the date at 2002.
  
  
• All that glitters is not..: Speaking of rare losses, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) also reported it's second quarterly loss since going public at then end of the 20th century. Goldman had a loss of 84 cents per share on revenue of $3.587 billion, compared with estimates calling for a loss of 15 cents per share and revenue of $4.59 billion.
  
  
• Bernanke has some good juke moves: Back to the economic front, speaking at a conference at the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, Fed Chief Ben 'The Bernank" Bernanke said that central banks may need to resort to monetary policy changes in order to deflate asset bubbles, but he was all for regulation as a first line of defense. He noted it was unlikely that central banks would move away from flexible inflation targeting.
  
  
• Spain gets Zorro treatment: Moody's Investors Service downgraded Spain's government bond ratings to A1 from Aa2, with a negative outlook. Among other things, Moody's cites Spain's vulnerability to market stress and scaled-back growth prospects on overall economic weakness.

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