Unpretentious loss On 21st August

On Thursday, 21 August, 2008, NASDAQ closed with unpretentious loss. NASDAQ closed on 2380.38 posting an overall loss of -0.36%. This was majority due the increases in oil future prices and weekly jobless claims below forecast. The oil prices rose up to the highest level in two weeks. The oil is currently trading at $119 per barrel. The weekly jobless claims further progressed to 445, 750 from 438,500. The NASDAQ shares of the defensive-oriented utilities (+0.2%) and energy sector (+1.6%) were the best performers of the session. The apparel retail index (+1.6%) was the biggest gainer of the session. The financial sector (-1.4%) continued to trade in the negative territory with Bank of America (BAC 28.97, -0.32), Morgan Stanley (MS 36.89, -0.51), Lehman Brothers (LEH 13.14, -0.59) and Goldman Sachs (GS 154.64, -3.61) reporting a significant amount of loss. The NASDAQ 100 is down nearly 1% majorly due to the weakness in Apple (AAPL 172.23, -3.61).