S&P 500 slips; Could end a four-day winning streak

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By BERNARD CONDON

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in late afternoon trading on Wednesday, a day after the Standard & Poor's 500 index had its biggest gain of the year. That broad index is on track to end four days of gains after a stretch of tumultuous trading in recent weeks.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 slipped four points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,937 as of 3:09 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 70 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,544. The Nasdaq composite fell 12 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,406.

THE QUOTE: "The market is still nervous," said John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management. "The extreme volatility of the last few weeks is on our minds."

YAHOO SURGE: Yahoo jumped $2.14, or 5 percent, to $42.32 after reporting encouraging third-quarter results late Tuesday. Yahoo got a windfall from the recent IPO of Alibaba, the giant Chinese online retailer that Yahoo owns a stake in. Revenue rose slightly from the previous year, a welcome change for a company that has been posting quarterly declines for most of the past five years.

FULL story at link.



Trader Timothy Nick, left, and specialist Mario Picone confer on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. Stocks are opening mixed as investors look over earnings reports from U.S. companies. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141022/financial_markets-853c362df0.html

[Purveyor]

1. Crude Oil Price Skids Following Big Inventory Build

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories increased by 7.1 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory to 377.7 million barrels. Crude inventory is now near the top of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 4 million barrels last week and are now near the top of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged 8.8 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, down by 0.2% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories increased by 1 million barrels last week, but they remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged about 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 0.6% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 4.6 million barrels a day last week, roughly flat with the prior week’s production.

Read more: Crude Oil Price Skids Following Big Inventory Build - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2014/10/22/crude-oil-price-skids-following-big-inventory-build/#ixzz3GuAe6xti

WTI currently 80.64 down -1.85 or -2.24%

[longship]

2. The poor babies. Can hardly wait to hear them crying.

NOT!

Let me rustle up some crocodile tears.

NOT!

[Helen Borg]

3. Come on, we know how it goes...

There will be another big crash, sooner or later. Nothing structural was done to fix the casino. So, it will happen again.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Nah, the "winning streak" is over

because Ebola-infested Klingon Battle Cruisers are poised to attack any day now.



(But actually, it's the Romulans using war ships the Klingons sold them to fight the Orions).