Stocks sold off today after Secretary Treasury Timmothy Geithner stated that he would be looking to “quickly” sell warrants received in exchange for liquidity injected into the banking sector.
[B][U]US Session Key Developments[/U][/B]
[B][/B]
[ul]
[li][B]Federal Reserve Mixed on Purchasing More Bonds, Minutes Show[/B] [/li][li][B]Treasury Secretary Geithner Inclined to ‘Quickly’ Sell Bank Warrants[/B][B][/li]
[/B]
[/ul]
[B][/B]
[B]Wall Street Shows Bearish Signs After a Second Losing Day
[/B]
[B][/B]
Stocks sold-off today after Federal Reserve minutes revealed a central bank mixed on its decision to purchase additional bonds. Minutes Showed that some of the bank’s board members wanted to purchase municipal securities in an effort to alleviate some of the stress felt by local governments. The tone of the statement may have signaled to Wall Street that latter meetings may see an increase in such purchases, making these securities more attractive. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner weighed in on financial markets in a testimony to the Senate Banking Committee today. He said that the Treasury may be in favor of “quickly” selling the warrants that the government received in return for injecting capital in various banks. “What I’m reluctant to do is have the government be in a position where we hold these investments for a long period of time.” Investors may have interpreted the statements as one that lends credence to a slower-than expected recovery in financial markets.
[B]Dow 30 8422.04 -52.81 -0.62%[/B][B][/B]
Dow stocks saw Health Care and Consumer Goods finished above water with the latter moving ahead 1.1%. General Motors surged 14% after it attracted three bids for its Opel unit.
[B]SPX 500 903.47 -4.66 -0.51%[/B][B][/B]
Consumer Staples performed the strongest, next to Health Care, after Coca-Cola jumped 3.86% despite Senate proposals to implement a federal tax on soda purchases.
[B]NAS 100 1727.84 -6.70 -0.39%[/B][B][/B]
NASDAQ took the largest hit after the world’s largest chip-maker, Intel, was threatened to be slapped with a 1 billion Euro ($1.36 billion) fine by the European Union as a result of a anti-trust case.