Typical bearish action was seen today to end a poor second quarter: an early, feeble attempt to rally gave way to a strong last-hour rollover which pushed the S&P 500 and the Dow to log their seventh loss in eight sessions (the Nasdaq 100 did even worse, closing red for an eighth consecutive session). After yesterday's 3% loss, the major indexes dropped by another one plus percent today.

Some initial strength was seen in the financial sector, as US banking stocks traded higher on the news that the sector might avoid billions of dollars in new fees and taxes now that some contentious language from the proposed financial reform bill has been dropped. The sector however also succumbed to late-day selling along with the broad market. The afternoon headline that Moody has put Spain's debt on review for a possible downgrade may have played a role; however, this news was not much of a surprise given that other rating agencies (Fitch, S&P) have already downgraded Spain's debt.

In US economic news, the latest ADP Employment Change Report was disappointing; it showed that the number of private payrolls increased by a mere 13,000 in June (consensus estimates: an increase of 61,000 private payrolls). Since the ADP report is often seen as a precursor to the US government payrolls report (the 'jobs report'), market participants may be looking to Friday with some trepidation as the latest monthly jobs report is scheduled for release at that time.

Today brought some M&A news: Celgene will acquire Abraxis Bioscience for roughly $72 per share; Sanofi-Aventis is taking over privately held TargeGen.

© HGH Associated Press

News Archive (from 4/1/2010 until 6/30/2010)