Financial news on October 20th, 2008
Business and Financial news
Insiders’ Share Sales on Margin on the Rise
Executives can sometimes appear to own shares in a company, but have actually pledged them as collateral for a loan. Read more..
Office Workers, Ivanka Trump Is Thinking of You
The daughter of Donald Trump has taken to blogging about saving money on lunch. Read more..
Spending on Gadgets Is Projected to Grow at a Slower Rate
The Consumer Electronics Association found a drop in the percentage of consumers expressing an intention to buy video games, cameras, music players and laptops. Read more..
Too Many Banks ‘Too Big to Fail’
Policy makers need to start thinking about how to downsize institutions that are becoming “too big to fail” before the situation comes to that. Read more..
Stock Markets
Values are reported in US Dollars
| Stock | Ticker symbol | Open | High | Low | Close | Volume |
| General Electric | GE | 20.26 | 20.37 | 19.43 | 20.14 | 94.6M |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 24.20 | 24.75 | 23.01 | 24.72 | 93.5M |
| Intel | INTC | 15.50 | 16.11 | 15.44 | 16.04 | 74.1M |
| Cisco Systems | CSCO | 18.35 | 19.01 | 17.81 | 18.96 | 66.7M |
| Apple | AAPL | 99.78 | 100.03 | 93.64 | 98.44 | 55.3M |
| Pfizer | PFE | 17.25 | 17.49 | 16.86 | 17.34 | 54M |
| Wells Fargo & Co. | WFC | 32.73 | 33.00 | 31.10 | 32.23 | 52.1M |
| ExxonMobil | XOM | 70.37 | 75.00 | 69.74 | 74.99 | 44.9M |
| JPMorgan Chase | JPM | 40.01 | 40.70 | 38.80 | 40.66 | 44.7M |
| Oracle Corp. | ORCL | 17.36 | 18.16 | 17.10 | 18.16 | 42.6M |
| AT&T Inc. | T | 25.68 | 27.08 | 25.29 | 26.99 | 35.2M |
| Wal-Mart Stores | WMT | 54.65 | 54.69 | 52.38 | 54.43 | 28.4M |
| Merck | MRK | 29.26 | 31.31 | 28.63 | 31.00 | 27.2M |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | 18.15 | 18.62 | 17.90 | 18.40 | 27.1M |
| ConocoPhillips | COP | 54.40 | 58.00 | 52.81 | 57.73 | 22.7M |
| Comcast | CMCSA | 15.28 | 15.97 | 15.22 | 15.97 | 22.5M |
| HP Inc. | HPQ | 40.30 | 41.27 | 39.10 | 41.01 | 21.7M |
| Abbott Laboratories | ABT | 55.92 | 57.99 | 55.37 | 57.55 | 19.8M |
| Altria | MO | 19.93 | 20.44 | 19.51 | 20.36 | 19.6M |
| Home Depot | HD | 20.47 | 21.00 | 20.11 | 20.78 | 18.4M |
| Chevron | CVX | 64.10 | 70.00 | 64.00 | 69.61 | 18.3M |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 63.44 | 64.53 | 62.15 | 64.44 | 18M |
| Verizon Communications | VZ | 27.61 | 29.04 | 27.22 | 28.99 | 16.6M |
| Procter & Gamble | PG | 62.54 | 64.12 | 61.10 | 63.91 | 16.6M |
| Schlumberger | SLB | 51.79 | 55.96 | 51.62 | 55.74 | 16.2M |
| Walt Disney & Co. | DIS | 24.96 | 26.55 | 24.59 | 26.55 | 14.1M |
| Coca-Cola | KO | 45.09 | 46.87 | 44.53 | 46.46 | 13.9M |
| Alphabet | GOOGL | 379.75 | 380.98 | 359.59 | 379.32 | 13.5M |
| Pepsico | PEP | 54.54 | 56.76 | 53.85 | 56.76 | 13.1M |
| United Technologies | UTX | 51.35 | 52.29 | 49.25 | 52.23 | 11M |
| Gilead Sciences | GILD | 43.03 | 46.57 | 42.94 | 46.49 | 10.8M |
| Amgen | AMGN | 50.55 | 53.45 | 50.33 | 53.35 | 10.2M |
| International Business Machines | IBM | 92.21 | 93.31 | 89.33 | 92.51 | 9.75M |
| UnitedHealth Group | UNH | 24.62 | 25.61 | 24.20 | 25.51 | 9.74M |
| Visa | V | 53.31 | 53.82 | 51.12 | 52.01 | 8.99M |
| McDonald's | MCD | 54.87 | 56.86 | 54.28 | 56.84 | 8.88M |
| Amazon | AMZN | 52.17 | 53.10 | 49.91 | 52.97 | 8.45M |
| Boeing | BA | 44.74 | 46.77 | 43.72 | 46.71 | 7.81M |
| 3M | MMM | 57.67 | 57.67 | 55.00 | 57.51 | 6.67M |
| Union Pacific | UNP | 57.06 | 59.20 | 55.54 | 58.88 | 6.36M |
| Berkshire Hathaway | BRK.B | 4040.00 | 4132.00 | 4020.00 | 4129.00 | 39K |
Exchange Rates of October 20th, 2008
| Currencies | Exchange Rates | ||
| US Dollar | Japanese Yen | 1 USD = 102.120 JPY | 1 JPY = 0.010 USD |
| US Dollar | Canadian Dollar | 1 USD = 1.192 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.839 USD |
| US Dollar | Swiss Franc | 1 USD = 1.150 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.869 USD |
| US Dollar | Chinese Yuan | 1 USD = 6.830 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.146 USD |
| Euro | Japanese Yen | 1 EUR = 136.080 JPY | 1 JPY = 0.007 EUR |
| Euro | Pound Sterling | 1 EUR = 0.777 GBP | 1 GBP = 1.287 EUR |
| Euro | Australian Dollar | 1 EUR = 1.895 AUD | 1 AUD = 0.528 EUR |
| Euro | Canadian Dollar | 1 EUR = 1.590 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.629 EUR |
| Euro | Swiss Franc | 1 EUR = 1.534 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.652 EUR |
| Euro | Chinese Yuan | 1 EUR = 9.107 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.110 EUR |
| Japanese Yen | Pound Sterling | 1 JPY = 0.571 GBP | 1 GBP = 1.753 JPY |
| Japanese Yen | Australian Dollar | 1 JPY = 1.392 AUD | 1 AUD = 0.719 JPY |
| Japanese Yen | Canadian Dollar | 1 JPY = 1.167 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.857 JPY |
| Japanese Yen | Swiss Franc | 1 JPY = 1.126 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.888 JPY |
| Pound Sterling | Australian Dollar | 1 GBP = 2.438 AUD | 1 AUD = 0.410 GBP |
| Pound Sterling | Canadian Dollar | 1 GBP = 2.045 CAD | 1 CAD = 0.489 GBP |
| Pound Sterling | Swiss Franc | 1 GBP = 1.973 CHF | 1 CHF = 0.507 GBP |
| Pound Sterling | Chinese Yuan | 1 GBP = 11.713 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.085 GBP |
| Australian Dollar | Canadian Dollar | 1 AUD = 0.838 CAD | 1 CAD = 1.193 AUD |
| Australian Dollar | Swiss Franc | 1 AUD = 0.809 CHF | 1 CHF = 1.236 AUD |
| Australian Dollar | Chinese Yuan | 1 AUD = 4.806 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.208 AUD |
| Canadian Dollar | Swiss Franc | 1 CAD = 0.965 CHF | 1 CHF = 1.037 CAD |
| Canadian Dollar | Chinese Yuan | 1 CAD = 5.727 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.175 CAD |
| Swiss Franc | Chinese Yuan | 1 CHF = 5.934 CNY | 1 CNY = 0.169 CHF |
See what else happened on October 20th, 2008