Comtex SmarTrend(R) Midday Market Recap -- October 15, 2009

Last updated October 15, 2009: 12:30 PM ET --- The major U.S. equity indices are trading lower Thursday following a pullback in the banking sector despite better-than-expected quarterly results from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Citigroup (NYSE:C). The number of U.S. workers filing for first-time claims for jobless benefits decreased last week to the lowest in nine months, which is a hopeful sign for the still weak job market. The claims dropped to 514,000 from 524,000 the previous week, and better than the 525,000 that economists had expected. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its index general business conditions moved to 11.5 in October, from 14.1 in September. The index has remained positive for the last three months. Conditions for New York manufacturers improved sharply in October, which increased hopes that economic recovery is on the way. The main index from New York Federal Reserve's Empire State Manufacturing Survey rose 16 points in October to 34.6, which is its highest level in five years. In corporate news, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) was off 10% after swinging to a Q3 loss and said that it expects 2009 phone volumes to drop by an upwardly revised 7% across the mobile industry. Citigroup (NYSE:S) shares fell 3.6% after reporting a Q3 profit of $101 million, but including preferred dividends, the company had a per-share loss of 27 cents in the latest quarter. Revenue increased 25% to $20.4 billion. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) shares fell 1.4% after it reported Q3 profit of $3.19 billion. After the closing bell, earnings reports from IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will be released. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading 0.11% lower at 10,004.82, the S&P 500 is down 0.16% at 1,090.37, and the Nasdaq Composite is down 0.34% at 2,164.89.

Write to Chip Brian at cbrian@tradethetrend.com

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