Monday’s Market Recap: Stocks Finish Lower

Wall Street finished lower on Monday to begin the week. The Dow (^DJI) suffered a loss of 59 points after bearish trading, and finished the day at 8,519 points. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) lost 31 points, and finished with 1,532 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) went down 16 points, and closed at 871 points. As for smaller companies, the Russell 2000 lost 11 points, and closed at 475 points. In international markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 (^N225) gained 1.57% while Britain’s FTSE 100 (^FTSE) fell 1.88%.

Light, sweet crude prices dropped on the NYMEX to $39.91 per barrel. Gasoline and heating oil futures declined as well, as gasoline settled at $0.87 and heating oil was down to $1.34. Natural gas prices went the opposite way, rising slightly to $5.35 at the end of Monday.

Commercial lender, CIT Group Inc. (CIT), has been given the authority to turn itself into a bank holding company. The firm is seeking $2.5 billion of funds from the government. CIT is in need of help due to last years second quarter net losses of $2.9.

Due to lower prices of nitrogen and phosphate prices for seeds and fertilizer have also been dragged down and will hurt Agricultural Chemicals Monsanto Co. (MON), according to analysts from Goldman Sachs. Share prices for Monsanto declined after Goldman analysts downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy”.

Shares of Walgreen Co. (WAG) also took a hit after saying that its profit fell from the costs of opening over 200 new stores. Earnings per share came to $0.41, compared to expected earnings of $0.46 per share which many analysts had predicted. The company will ease up on new store growth, but still plans to add 475 by the end of August 2009.

Construction Equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) will cut executive compensation up to 50% in the coming year as the global slowdown continues. Since the beginning of the year Caterpillar has lost over 40% of its share price.

Disclosure: None

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