Wednesday’s Market Recap: Stocks Suffer Slight Losses

Markets took a hit trading amid the volatility concerning oil prices as OPEC decided to cut output by 2.2 million barrels per day. Wednesday’s decision is an addition to a cut of 2 million barrels per day that came in September. Worried about diving crude prices, OPEC has attempted to sway markets and increase the price. This attempt by the cartel has not been successful in this endeavor for the past few months including today’s cut. Oil prices declined yet again to settle at $40.60, after losing $3.54. Time will tell if these reductions will actually have an impact on oil markets or if they will continue to backfire.

The Dow (^DJI) fell into the red by 99 points, and closed trading at 8,824 points. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) dropped over 10 points, and closed at 1,579 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 8 points, and finished at 904 points. In international markets, Britain’s FTSE (^FTSE) gained 0.35 percent.

The dollar traded at its 13 year low against the yen, and dropped as well against the Euro. Gold prices ended higher at $868 on the day.  This seems to be a response to the most recent Federal Reserve rate cut that occurred on Tuesday of this week.

In corporate news, General Mills (GIS) beat earnings estimates and forecasts optimistic full-year earnings for fiscal year 2009. General Mills made a profit of $378 million, and eared $1.09 per share. For the year, the food maker raised its full-year outlook to earnings of $3.83 per share.

Aetna (AET) will be cutting 1000 jobs to lower costs during the current market conditions. A majority of those cuts will be coming from Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The cost will be close to $35 million from the fourth quarter financial reporting.

Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG) saw its share price fall today after announcing that it was selling half of their nuclear-power business to Electricite de France SA. This move ends the deal with Warren Buffet that was previously in place.

Buffet who agreed to buy the power company for $4.7 billion, and lets Constellation remain independent. Buffet initially lent a helping hand by extending $1 billion for a cash injection to keep the company from collapsing.

Disclosure: None

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