Today’s close: down 4.95%
Reports of record-high short interest, lousy prospects for non-residential construction and a gloomy-Gus Morgan Stanley analyst beat the stuffing out of Caterpillar shares, taking them down by over 7 percent before a few merciful buyers showed up and reminded people that the earthmover market was not coming to an end. Complete quote at Yahoo Finance.
The broad indexes took a milder beating after the Fed stated the obvious about the economy needing an intravenous Prozac injection. Energy and financials bore the brunt. Dow, down 2.94%; S&P 500, down 3.34%; Nasdaq, down 3.67%. Recap at Market Watch.
Mild cause for optimism: bounce of a couple percentage points off the morning low and no sell-off into the close. More serious cause for concern: Volume was nearly 16 million shares, a healthy pop from the 10 million range where Cat had been trading of late.