Market closes lower...

At the close:

Dow -170 to 11157.

S&P -18 to 1161.

Nasdaq -48 to 2111.



Kind of a dull day as traders reduce holdings ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting tomorrow.

Different Take on the Buffett Investment in BAC....

Mike Krieger has a different take on Warren Buffett's (BRK.A) Bank of America (BAC +9.4%) investment: It's "extremely bearish for the market, the economy and the financial system." It shows BofA did indeed need capital, Krieger says, and that the Fed may be "out of the game. No one has confidence in the Fed to come save the day," so they went to the next best thing: "Uncle Warren."

ATPG Oil and Gas continues to rally....

Yesterday, I pointed out that ATPG might be worth a play.

Today this stock is up another 10% (+1.25 to 13.03)

At 2 pm.....

Dow -128
Nas -32
S&P -6

Bank of America is now up 73 cents
Apple is down 3.55
Gold is slightly lower

The latest on Irene....

Hurricane Irene is now on a path that could take it dangerously close to, if not over, the mid-Atlantic coastline and New York City on Sunday, posing a serious danger to millions of people.  Irene could be "once-in-50-year" hurricane for the Northeast.

The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center is confident that Irene will strike the Outer Banks of North Carolina Saturday evening as a strong Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane.  Beyond that point, latest indications put Irene on a path extremely close to or over the mid-Atlantic coast and New York City before plowing into western New England. This could mean the worst effects from a hurricane in the region in 50 years.

More on Jackson Hole....

Fed chief Ben Bernanke is due to address central bankers at an annual symposium in Jackson Hole,Wyoming, on Friday. His speech last year laid the groundwork for the Fed's $600 billion bond-buying program to revive a sputtering U.S. economy.


While many doubt Bernanke will immediately commit to conducting a third round of quantitative easing at the Jackson Hole summit, investors generally expect him to stress that the central bank stands ready to act if necessary.

The market is selling off today, ahead of the meeting.

Mid-day update.....

Stocks are selling off as the day progresses:

Dow -181
Nas -46
S&P -20

After two nice updays we were due for some sort of profit taking ahead of tomorrow's Fed comments from Jackson Hole WY. 

Individual Investors Turn Bearish...

The AAII Investor Sentiment Survey shows more investors came off the fence from neutral and defined their outlook for stocks over the next 6 months.

Bullish sentiment 36.4% vs.Bearish sentiment 41%

What a surprise......NOT!!!

I kind of agree with this....

Let's get real: In the long run, Apple (AAPL -1.6%) will not be the same company without Steve Jobs, Jeff Macke writes. Consider Microsoft's (MSFT) stock since Bill Gates left day-to-day operations in January 2000. From Henry Ford to Sam Walton to Howard Shultz, the history of companies after the departure of charismatic long-time leaders tends to be ugly.

I'll add another one: Gateway Computer crashed after its founder Ted Waite left.  Jeff Macke is the bald headed guy who used to be on Fast Money and mysteriously disappeared.

Traders sell into open.....

Not much going on here, but after opening up nearly 100 points the Dow is now down 142.

Two biggest stories: 

Bank of America stock is now up only 87 cents after opening 1.50 higher on the Buffett news.

Apple has been down 6 points most of the morning as traders bought that following the 20 point loss in the aftermarket last night.  A great example of why trading in the post market should be avoided.

Gold bounced off of the 1700 level this morning and is now back to 1725.  That is still down $55 an ounce from yesterday's close.

Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Recipe.....

I'll be making these at my house on Friday night...

2 oz Myer's Dark Jamaican Rum
2 oz Silver White Light Rum
2 oz Passion-fruit Juice, Yellow
1 oz 100% Orange Juice
1 tsp Fresh Lime Juice
1 tbsp Simple Syrup
1 tbsp Grenadine Syrup

Directions: Mix up and drink heavily.  Maybe the real Hurricane will blow over.

Does anyone actually subscribe to a music service for their phone???

Confirming rumors, Research In Motion (RIMM) is launching a subscription music service for BlackBerry owners. However, critics are already panning the $5/month service as another sign of RIM's consumer myopia.

Today's Upgrades and Downgrades...

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday morning.

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE: AEO) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Lazard.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Maintained Overweight at JPMorgan; Maintained Outperform at Credit Suisse; Maintained Buy at BofA/ML.
Ariba Inc. (NASDAQ: ARBA) Reiterated Hold at Argus.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) Raised to Buy at Societe Generale.
Casey’s General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CASY) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Gol Linhas Aereas (NYSE: GOL) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) Cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (NASDAQ: ODFL) named Value stock of the day at Zacks.
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Started as Buy at RBS.
Shanda Games Limited (NASDAQ: GAME) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

9:45 am update.....

The market opened higher on the news that Warren Buffett is supporting Bank of America stock.  Since the open we have settled back down a bit.

Dow +40
Nas +4
S&P +1

Bank of America stock is up 1.26 to 8.25
Apple had been down 20+ points last evening, now it is only down 6.33 to 370
Gold is selling off hard again.

Buffett to the rescue of BAC...

This just in....

Warren Buffett is investing $5 billion in Bank of America, putting the Oracle of Omaha’s golden seal of approval on the battered banking giant. 

Remember that Buffett rode to the rescue of several besieged financing giants during the financial crisis, investing in Goldman Sachs and General Electric, among others, during the heat of financing panic in 2008 and 2009.

Buffett’s seal of approval is legendary and he charges a fortune for it. He’s buying 50,000 preferred shares of Bank of America at a dividend of 6% a year. He’s also receiving warrants on 700 million shares at a strike price of about $7.14 a share. Those warrants would have been out of the money yesterday, but will be in the money as soon as markets open. The deal will make Buffett one of Bank of America’s biggest shareholders.

Futures have spiked as a result...Look for a big rally in bank shares.

Amazon + Hulu = Trouble for Netflix....

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon, along with other potential bidders, Google, DirecTV and Yahoo are supposed to submit bids for Hulu today. Hulu, which is currently owned by News Corp., Walt Disney and Comcast, could be acquired for as much as $2 billion, depending on how the auction goes and the content is split up.

If Jeff Bezos and his team were to get Hulu, it would be a massive win for the Seattle-based company, and be a huge blow to Netflix. Amazon already has over 100,000 streaming videos through its Amazon Prime service, and it would take on Netflix in a way that should leave Reed Hastings and his team up late at night.

UBS, Citi cut global growth view, rule out recession...

UBS and Citigroup lowered their forecast for global growth, with sharp reductions to its euro zone view and more modest cuts for China, but ruled out the likelihood of a recession for now.

Steve Jobs quits as Apple CEO, Cook takes over...

Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Inc on Wednesday and passed the reins to his right-hand man Tim Cook, saying he could no longer fulfill the duties in a bombshell announcement that raised fears his health has deteriorated further.

Wednesday's Recap...

Leading stocks behaved decently Wednesday as the major indexes rose for a third straight day.  The Nasdaq rallied 0.9% and finished almost at the day's high during a seesaw session. That followed a 4.3% jump Tuesday, which marked a follow-through on a new rally that began Aug. 9.  The S&P 500 closed it it's highs of the day, rising 1.3%, beating the Nasdaq's gain. The NYSE composite was up 0.9% and the small-cap Russell 2000 gained 1.4%. Gold miners fell hard.

After the bell, news that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of Apple put pressure on the markets overnight.