In the first 10 minutes of trading this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost as many as 146 points after IBM showed lower-than-expected quarterly revenues.
But the extension of jobless benefits and a reported increase in building permits issued (an increase of more than 2%) helped investors get back on track and the Dow spent the rest of the day recovering from losses and making gains. Even the announcement that Goldman Sachs had an 82% decrease in quarterly earnings couldn’t dampen investor’s spirits. The Dow closed at 10,231.40 an increase of 76.97 points.
Helping matters out was the Board of the Federal Reserve’s increased optimism in TARP loan repayments, as they agreed with the Treasury that they could reduce the amount of credit protection they’d issued to the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) under TARP. According to the press release issued by the Federal Reserve today, they announced that many of the TARF loans initially issued had been paid back early.
European markets were down as concerns about Ireland’s debt and Hungary’s high deficit have decreased investor confidence. Asian markets were mixed. The S&P 500 closed at 1,083.49, up 12.24 points while the Nasdaq was up 24.26 points to close at 2,222.49.
