STOCKS FALL: Here's What You Need To Know
Nov 20, 2013, 02:30 IST
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First, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 15,959.0, -17.0, -0.1%
- S&P 500: 1,786.7, -4.7, -0.2%
- NASDAQ: 3,929.2, -19.8, -0.5%
And now the top stories:
- JPMorgan finally reached a settlement with the government over financial crisis-era mortgages. It will pay a $13 billion settlement, the large payment by a company in history. "This historic deal, which will bring long-overdue relief to homeowners around the country and across New York, is exactly what our working group was created to do," said New York Attorney General Schneiderman. "We refused to allow systemic frauds that harmed so many New York homeowners and investors to simply be forgotten, and as a result we've won a major victory today in the fight to hold those who caused the financial crisis accountable."
- Shares of Best Buy got crushed after the company announced disappointing sales and warned on profit margins. Comparable store sales climbe by just 0.3% versus expectations for a 0.7% gain."First and foremost, we are committed to being competitive on price," said Best Buy CFO Sharon McCollam. "[I]t is table stakes in our transformation. So if our competition is in fact more promotional in the fourth quarter, we will be too and that will have a negative impact on our gross margin.
- "Monetary policy is likely to remain highly accommodative long after one of the economic thresholds for the federal funds rate has been crossed," said Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen in a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Federal Reserve had previously said it would use a 6.5% unemployment rate threshold and a 2.5% inflation rate threshold to guide monetary policy. "It is also important to note that the thresholds are not triggers - that is, once a threshold has been crossed, the (Fed's policy-setting) committee will not necessarily raise the federal funds rate target immediately," Yellen said.
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