Stockerati

So the market’s down again. Here’s how our 3 favorite indexes ended up at close today

·

• Oil is up again- hit new highs- upto $143 a barrel today.Oil surged to new records above $144 a barrel as the government reported a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. supplies and as investors worried about tensions in the Middle East
• Fears that GM could go so far as to declare bankruptcy only added to investors’ unease. The stock closed below the $10 mark for the first time since September 1954 when Dwight Eisenhower was president. Investors shrugged off better-than-expected sales figures from June and fretted about the company’s cash needs. Surprising considering that just yesterday Wall Street rallied on the back of GM’s returns.
• · Businesses are also struggling with elevated energy costs, and demand is weakening for autos, heavy machinery and steel.

• Recognizing Yahoo’s vulnerability, Microsoft is trying to recruit News Corp., Time Warner’s AOL or other media partners to put together a joint bid that would slice Yahoo into pieces, according to the Journal. The story cited undisclosed people familiar with the discussions.

In other news,

• Asian markets fell sharply early Thursday as worries about surging crude oil prices and inflation hurt shares of steelmakers such as Nippon Steel Corp. (JP:5401:and shipping firms such as STX Shipbuilding Co. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average fell 0.8% to 13,174.74, after sliding during the previous ten sessions and the broader Topix index gave up 1.5% to 1,281.65. South Korea’s Kospi sank 2.1% to 1,589.71 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 2.2% to 4,984.40, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 index fell 1.5% to 3,114.65
• Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) on Wednesday said it expects its second-quarter revenue and gross margin to be lower than its previously announced forecast. The company now expects revenue from $875 million to $950 million. Nvidia also said it plans to take a $150 million to $200 million charge related to expenses stemming from "a weak die/packaging material" used in previous generation products for notebook systems.
• August gold closed at $946.50 an ounce in New York Wednesday, up $2 for the session to mark a fresh two-and-a-half-month high. Strength in oil prices and weakness in the U.S. dollar helped support the latest gains in gold, which saw its August futures contract climb more than $16 in the previous session

• Crude oil prices will probably hit $160 a barrel by December and will remain high through the middle of 2009 before dropping as global demand wanes, economists for Global Insight said Wednesday. "We now expect oil, food, and raw materials costs to keep rising through the first half of 2009. Starting in the second half of 2009, we predict sustained declines for most commodity prices," wrote chief economist Nariman Behravesh. Geopolitical events could easily push prices higher, he said. Crude oil prices are expected to fall to $130 by the end of 2009 and $110 in 2010 as supply ramps up
• A Standard & Poor’s Equity Research analyst on Wednesday reiterated a strong buy recommendation on Starbucks Corp. SBUX 15.68, +0.06, +0.4%) after the company said it will accelerate U.S. retail restructuring. "We lower our fiscal year 2008 EPS estimate by 20 cents to 65 cents on our expectation of net charges to be taken this fiscal year. We raise fiscal year 2009 estimate 5 cents to $1.05 on 10 cents of charges and 15 cents of increased profit. On a rise in our assumed weighted average cost of capital to 11.6% from 10.7%, we lower our DCF-based target price by $3 to $24," Mark Basham, an S&P analyst said. Shares of Starbucks were up 0.4% to $15.68 in mid-day trading\
• Delinquency rates for home equity lines of credit and bank cards rose during the first quarter, the American Bankers Association reported Wednesday, citing ongoing housing market stress and general economic weakness. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the percentage of HELOC accounts more than 30 days past due rose a 0.14 percentage point to 1.1%, reaching the highest rate recorded since 1997. Delinquencies for bank cards - credit cards provided by a bank — rose a 0.13 percentage point to 4.51% in the first quarter, compared with the five-year average delinquency rate of 4.40%.
• Bernstein Research analyst Neil McMahon on Wednesday upgraded Exxon Mobil to outperform from market perform, praising the company as a "monolithic value play in uncertain times." McMahon said Exxon Mobil has underperformed the energy sector and has only just outperformed the market despite record commodity prices. "Exxon Mobil consistently generates the best returns in the industry and this together with having a credit rating better than most governments, casts Exxon Mobil as a safe and steady pair of hands," McMahon said in a note to clients. "The uncertainty both in the energy space and the broader market at a time of record oil prices could change the fortunes of Exxon Mobil."
• Toyota Motor Corp. is planning an overhaul of it U.S. operations following weaker sales in June, with the automaker likely to introduce additional production holidays at its Texas truck factory and two other U.S. facilities to trim output, according to a Japanese media report. Toyota is also planning to transfer some employees at its Indiana plant to other facilities and increase production at a facility producing the Camry sedan and other fuel-efficient vehicles, the Nikkei newspaper reported Thursday, without saying where it got the information. Toyota will also cut production at an automotive facility in Japan, which primarily produces vehicles for the U.S. market ,by about 10% this fiscal year, the report said