karate kid
screengrab from The Karate Kid
Markets got slammed mid-day after Ben Bernanke spoke.  But they erased most of their losses.  However, a couple of big stocks still got punished today.
First the scoreboard:
Dow: 12,789, -6.6, -0.1 percent

S&P 500: 1,387, +0.8, +0.0 percent

NASDAQ: 2,916, +0.6, +0.0 percent

And now the top stories:
  • Tech giant Hewlett-Packard shocked investors this morning when it announced a massive $8.8 billion writeoff of Autonomy, a British software company it bought for $10 billion in 2011.  "The chart relates to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy that occured prior to HP's acquisition of Autonomy and the trading value of HP stock during the period preceding the recording of the charge," wrote the company in a statement.  To make things worse, the company's outlook for business was disappointing.

  • Best Buy also announced quarterly financial results this morning, and it was a huge disappointinment on the bottom line.  The stock got punished today.

  • The good news out of the U.S. housing market continues.  Housing starts surged to 894k, which was well above economists' expectation for 840k.  This is the highest level since June 2008.  Market guru Ed Yardeni writes that housing will drive the "second recovery" in 2013.

  • Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at the Economic Club of New York today. "Bernanke did not deliver anything new," wrote TD Securities' Eric Green.  Howevder, markets may have gotten spooked when he warned that the Fed didn't have the tools to offset the economic impact of going off the "fiscal cliff."

  • But his speech did end on a pretty optimistic note, assuming we can get passed this fiscal cliff.  "Cooperation and creativity to deliver fiscal clarity – in particular, a plan for resolving the nation's longer-term budgetary issues without harming the recovery – could help make the new year a very good one for the American economy."

  • GMO's Jeremy Granthamis less optimistic.  In his new quarterly letter to clients, he wrote that the hundred years of above 3 percent growth we've experienced has ended.  "The bottom line for U.S. real growth, according to our forecast, is 0.9% a year through 2030, decreasing to 0.4% from 2030 to 2050, 
    The bottom line for U.S. real growth, according to our forecast, is 0.9% a year through 2030, decreasing to 0.4% from 2030 to 2050

    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jeremy-grantham-us-growth-forecast-2012-11#ixzz2CneDBMYX
    " he writes.