Markets Hammered As Major Stocks Falter

Investing

Published: May 14, 2012 10:01 am

The DJIA is off over 100 points, 136 points, to 12,686. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 are off by similar percentages.

The carnage is particularly severe in a few sectors.

News that JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) fired its chief investment officer reminded investors of how badly risk is managed at large banks. JPM has taken a $2 billion write-off its London traders took. JPM is down 2.81% to $35.90.Back of America (NYSE: BAC) is down 2% on similar sentiment about risk to $7.39, and Citigroup (NYSE: C) is down 2%. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is down 3.4%. Its debt will probably be downgraded this summer, according to a number of sources.

Several tech stock were hurt by worry of a slowing economy in Europe, and perhaps Asia. These include Symantac (NASDAQ: SYMC), Micron (NASDAQ: MU), Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The sell off in Clearwire is more because of debt than overseas exposure.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is only up 1.4% on news it sacked and replaced its CEO. Markets probably assume that its trouble goes well beyond a replacement of management. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) fired its chairman and founder because he helped cover-up a relationship the electronics firm’s CEO has with another employee. Best Buy shares are up less than 1%

Douglas A. McIntyre

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