Stocks Fall on Poor Retail Sales, Oil

[joefree1]

Associated Press
Stocks Fall on Poor Retail Sales, Oil
10.07.2004, 04:33 PM

Investors sent stocks sharply lower Friday as oil prices continued their climb higher and new questions about the safety of arthritis drugs pressured pharmaceutical stocks. The Dow Jones industrials, which include drug makers Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co., lost more than 114 points.

Uninspiring September retail sales contributed to the market's malaise.

Investors were newly uneasy about drug stocks after a new scientific study showed that Pfizer's Celebrex could cause cardiovascular problems similar to those caused by Merck's Vioxx, which was pulled from the market last week after Merck found a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke. The news fed selling in the rest of the drug sector.

Investors also bid stocks lower as oil prices reached a record $53 per barrel in intraday trading, as production problems in Russia, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico combined to spark another wave of speculation. A barrel of crude oil settled at $52.67, up 65 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"Oil continues to be the big story here, and it's going to be hard for the markets to break out of a range while this continues to be a problem," said Joseph Battipaglia, chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co. "It adds to the uncertainty in the market over earnings and the election."
More ...
http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/feeds/ap/2004/10/07/ap1581804.html

Spin this ya White House Squatting Frat Boy!

[Owlet]

1. It's Friday already?

Doesn't ANYONE proofread anymore? Not yelling at you, Joefree1 - the error is right on the Forbes site.

[joefree1]

2. LOL, I guess being a right wing greed screed

don't make em smart. Good catch.

[Amigust]

3. End-of-month rally over?

Start counting trading days beginning on the last trading day of the month. Count five trading days (that brings us up to today). 80% of the time, the market goes up during those five trading days.

[kysrsoze]

4. October is notoriously brutal even without the bad conditions of this year

Bring it on! I hate to be asking for a crappy stock market, but one month of poor showing will do fine for me. Of course if * gets re-elected, you can add at least 48 more bad months to it.