The Morning After

Close your eyes and pretend it's still Wednesday. The Fed has just announced a rate cut. Markets are celebrating. Open your eyes, and it's the hangover of the morning after. Earnings news dampened the enthusiasm of the previous day. Investors ran for the doors, as several bits of bad news hit. Exxon's earnings were below expectations (imagine that!). Chrysler is laying off again, and Citigroup was downgraded by analyst. Markets gave up about 2 1/2% across the board. Not a pretty day. Among all the blood-letting, I noted one bright spot. Dentsply (XRAY) gained about 8% on the day. DJIA -362.14 NASDAQ -64.29 S&P 500 -40.94