Dow falls 142 points on Korean worries

Updated: 11:37 p.m. ET

U.S. stocks were pummeled today, with the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) briefly falling below 11,000, in the wake of North Korea's apparent shelling of a South Korean island.

The American slump followed the reaction of markets around the world to the Korean news. Three more worries weighed on stocks: whether Europe could contain the Irish debt crisis, a weak report on existing-home sales and a cut in the Federal Reserve's economic outlook.

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The dollar, gold and silver all rallied as some investors sought safe havens for their cash.

The Dow closed down 142 points, or 1.3%, to 11,036, after dropping as many as 186 points early in the session. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) fell 17 points, or 1.4%, to 1,181, and the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) was off 37 points, or 1.5%, to 2,495.

Gold settled up $19.90 to $1,377.60 an ounce in New York. Silver settled up 11.1 cents to $27.572 an ounce. Copper, however, settled down 4.9 cents to $3.7025 a pound.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 1.3% to 79.81. The dollar rose against the euro, British pound and the Japanese yen. The biggest gain was 1.7% against the euro.

Crude oil was down 49 cents to $81.25. Crude had fallen to as low as $80.28. early in the day.

The dollar's gain also pushed interest rates lower, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 2.762% from 2.813% on Monday.

 

Futures trading suggests a slightly higher open on Wednesday. The day includes reports on initial jobless claims and personal income and spending. Deere (DE) and Tiffany (TIF) will report quarterly results.

Jury: SAP owes Oracle $1.3 billion

After hours, a federal jury in Oakland, Calif., ruled that German software maker SAP (SAP) should pay $1.3 billion to rival Oracle (ORCL) for copyright infringement. Oracle shares jumped 1.3% to $27.54 after hours after dropping 3.1% to $27.19 in regular trading.

SAP had admitted liability for the actions of a now-shuttered SAP subsidiary called TomorrowNow.

TomorrowNow, which provided software maintenance and support to Oracle customers, illegally downloaded Oracle software and documents, infringing on 120 copyrights. SAP had argued its liability was $40 million. Oracle wanted $288 million to $3 billion. SAP, whose shares fell 1.4% after hours to $48.02 in New York, may appeal.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil			$81.29			$81.74			-0.22%			2.38%
(per barrel)
Heating oil			$2.2496			$2.2686			0.53%			6.33%
(per gallon)
Natural gas			$4.2640			$4.2710			5.60%			-23.47%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline			$2.1342			$2.1519			3.63%			3.96%
(per gallon)
Retail gasoline			$2.8700			$2.8720			2.17%			8.75%
(per gallon; AAA)

Market has struggled in last three weeks
Today's was the eighth loss in 12 days for the Dow and S&P 500 and sixth in 12 sessions for the Nasdaq. That's left some traders worried that the market may have peaked for 2010.

The Dow finished the day down nearly 4% from its 2010 closing high of 11,444, reached on Nov. 5. It's still up 5.8% for the year. The S&P is off 3.7% from its high close on the year, 1,226, also set on Nov. 5.

The Nasdaq peaked on Nov. 6 at 2,580. With a slide of 3.3% since then, its 2010 gain has been trimmed from 13.5% to 10%.

Dollar's gain hits export-oriented stocks
The dollar's gain hit commodity stocks and stocks that have benefited from a falling dollar. The laggard among the 30 Dow stocks was IBM (IBM), with Caterpillar (CAT) and 3M (MMM) among the five worst performers. The other two were Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), both off because of the decline in energy prices.

The market's decline came despite a 16.8% rally to $43.99 in shares of retailer J. Crew (JCG). The company said an investor group led by CEO Leonard Green will buy it for $43.50 a share, or about $3 billion. This is the second time J. Crew has been taken private.

In addition, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shares were up 2.2% to $44.19 after delivering solid results for its fiscal fourth quarter and boosting guidance for fiscal 2011.

HP was the only Dow stock to show a gain today, along with just seven stocks in the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks. The index was off 34 points, or 1.6%, to 2,495. Apple (AAPL), down 1.5% to $308.73, contributed 6.5 points to the decline.

Decliners were ahead of gainers 3.6-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 2.9-to-1 on Nasdaq.

An additional worry, especially for hedge-fund managers, was where a federal insider-trading probe was headed. A number of large hedge funds and money management firms reported receiving requests for information. No charges have been filed, however.

The Fed cuts its outlook, disagrees on stimulus efforts
Federal Reserve officials approved a $600 billion plan to stimulate the economy, despite wide disagreement on whether the plan promoted by Chairman Ben Bernanke would work.

Nonetheless, all but one member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's rate-making body, voted to go ahead with the plan, according to minutes of the FOMC's Nov. 2-3 meeting.

The concerns over the plan, which involves buying Treasury securities to drive interest rates lower, included:

• The bond purchases won't address the factors keeping unemployment high, including whether laid-off workers had the skills needed for today's economy and could even relocate.
• The plan could drive the dollar down to unacceptable levels.
• The plan could boost inflation pressures.

The FOMC also trimmed its economic outlook for 2011 and beyond. It sees the U.S. unemployment rate ranging between 8.9% to 9.1% in 2011. A June outlook suggested the range would be 8.3% to 8.7%.

Existing-home sales fell; consumers help the economy
Stocks weren't helped by a weak report on existing-home sales. The National Association of Realtors said sales fell 2.2% in October from September to an annualized 4.43-million-unit rate from 4.53 million in September.

Sales were off 25.9% from October 2009's 5.98-million-unit rate, when sales were surging prior to the initial deadline for the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

Year-to-date, there have been 4.15 million existing-home sales, down 2.9% from 4.272 million units at this time in 2009, the Realtors said.

The U.S. economy grew more than previously calculated in the third quarter, led by stronger consumer spending and fueled by labor income gains that may stoke demand into 2011.

The revised 2.5% increase in gross domestic product compares with a 2% estimate issued last month and a 1.7% rise in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said today. Consumer purchases rose at the fastest pace since the last three months of 2006.

Is there a reason for the Korean shootout?
If you assume North Korea started the shooting that killed two people on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, the question is why?

A short answer from Mike Chinoy, a former CNN correspondent in Asia, is that the North Koreans want the rest of the world to know they can make bad stuff happen and there's a risk to ignoring them or trying to punish them.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak  has been pursuing a get-tough policy, which the North Koreans resent, and clashes have erupted with some regularity in the last few years, says Chinoy, now a senior fellow at the U.S. China Institute at the University of Southern California.

What the North Koreans really want is to talk to the United States on a regular basis.

Some analysts linked it to the need for food aid, which has been largely denied by South Korea and strangled by international and U.S. sanctions, The New York Times said. Adding to the North’s internal political realities, the ailing leader, Kim Jong-il, has been positioning his youngest son as his successor.

The incident came after an American nuclear scientist who visited North Korea earlier this month said he had been shown a vast new facility built secretly and rapidly to enrich uranium.

The shooting began just as South Korea's stock market was closing. The Seoul Composite Index fell 0.8%. Markets in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and India all fell at least 1.3%. The biggest loss was 2.7%, suffered bv Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.14%			0.13%			16.67%			180.00%
5-year Treasury note			1.39%			1.43%			17.56%			-48.40%
10-year Treasury note			2.57%			2.81%			-1.45%			-33.02%
30-year Treasury bond			3.92%			4.21%			-2.10%			-15.62%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			79.762			78.768			2.98%			1.97%
British pound			$1.5785			$1.5964			-1.67%			-2.42%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.63			£0.63			1.70%			2.47%
Euro in dollars			$1.34			$1.36			-4.21%			-6.69%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.75			€ 0.73			4.40%			7.17%
U.S. $ in yen			83.33			83.26			3.00%			-10.39%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.67			6.64			-0.36%			-2.28%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.98			$0.98			-0.53%			2.80%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.02			$1.02			0.53%			-2.72%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold			$1,377.60			$1,357.80			1.47%			25.67%
(per troy ounce)
Copper			$3.70			$3.75			-0.83%			10.64%
(per pound)
Silver			$27.57			$27.46			12.25%			63.68%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat			$6.42			$6.46			-10.49%			18.56%
(per bushel)
Corn			$5.29			$5.15			-9.19%			27.50%
(per bushel)
Crude oil			$81.25			$81.74			-0.22%			2.38%
(per barrel)