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Date: Thursday 21 Aug 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Leading shares are mostly lower, albeit off the bottom, with fallers outnumbering risers among blue-chips by about two to one. Financial stocks lead the way down, as balance sheet concerns refuse to go away while retailers are also out of favour.

The Dow Jones 30 is down 30 at 11,386, while the S&P 500 sheds 1 point at 1,266. The NASDAQ Composite is 16 points lower at 2,372.

Citicorp has added to the banking sector’s woes with a report suggesting that Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley could write down an aggregate $6.4bn in their third quarter results.

Ratings firm Standard & Poors also stuck the knife in to the US banking sector by warning that more downgrades could be on the cards. S&P said in a report released today that US banks are about halfway through the credit downturn.

Merrill Lynch also declines, despite its largest shareholder hinting it might be interested in increasing its stake. State-owned Singaporean investment company Temasek has around a 5% stake in Merrill Lynch, for which it paid $5bn on Christmas Eve. Since then the value of the shares has halved.

Swiss bank UBS has depressed the supermarket sector with suggestions that inflation will erode retailers’ margins. Supermarket chain Supervalu is hit hard by the report, while Safeway also retreats.

The rising oil price is hurting stocks of fuel dependent companies such as General Motors and US Airways. Conversely, oil stocks such as Chevron and Exxon are motoring forward.

Phone equipment maker JDS Uniphase dialled all the wrong numbers when its fourth quarter results unexpectedly showed a loss.

In other company news, HJ Heinz saw first-quarter profit rise 11% to $229m thanks to sales that rose 14% to $2.58m, while Burger King saw profits jump 42% in the fourth quarter, driven by strong sales.

S&P 500 - Risers
Limited Brands Inc (LTD) $19.65 +9.35%
Peabody Energy Corp (BTU) $68.40 +6.29%
Massey Energy Co (MEE) $68.85 +6.15%
Fannie Mae (FNM) $4.64 +5.45%
D R Horton Inc (DHI) $11.23 +4.66%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Jds Uniphase Corp (JDSU) $9.86 -17.14%
Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) $8.07 -8.09%
M B I A Inc (MBI) $9.97 -4.96%
Amer Intl Group Inc (AIG) $19.78 -4.90%
Tesoro Corp (TSO) $16.94 -4.88%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Chevron Corp (CVX) $88.43 +2.28%
Exxon Mobil Cp (XOM) $80.55 +2.21%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Amer Intl Group Inc (AIG) $19.78 -4.90%
General Motors (GM) $9.82 -3.35%

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