A day after the stock market\u2019s surge, investors pulled back a bit today, even with better than expected quarterly results from Morgan Stanley. As of early this afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial index fell approximately 60 points after yesterday\u2019s 420 point surge, which came on the heels of the Federal Reserve\u2019s announcement that it would slash the federal funds rate 75 basis points, to 2.25 percent. Though many observers had expected a 100 basis point cut, the Fed\u2019s move was nonetheless greeted with optimism by the market. Also driving yesterday\u2019s gains\u2014the Dow saw its biggest jump in more than five years\u2014were stronger than expected earnings reports from Lehman Bros. and Goldman Sachs. The gains were a welcome sign to investors after the troubled Bear Stearns was saved from creditors by a bargain basement buyout from JP Morgan Chase & Co. Today Morgan Stanley joined Lehman and Goldman Sachs in reporting gains which outpaced expectations. And with Visa Inc.\u2019s record-setting $17.9 billion IPO yesterday, as well as news that the government would infuse up to $200 billion into the mortgage-backed securities market via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, positive economic signs have not been hard to find in the past two days. Still, many investors are remaining on the sidelines until the results of the government\u2019s recent stimulus efforts become clearer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A day after the stock market\u2019s surge, investors pulled back a bit today, even with better than expected quarterly results from Morgan Stanley. As of early this afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial index fell approximately 60 points after yesterday\u2019s 420 point surge, which came on the heels of the Federal Reserve\u2019s announcement that it would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003727704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n