Market Summary

Stocks had an adventurous day on the street. Following a mixed start in the premarket, futures shot higher after the Labor Department reported a significant drop in weekly jobless claims. However, stocks retreated following a late morning report showing an unexpected decline in existing home sales.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 41.11, or 0.4 percent, to 9,707.44. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 10.09, or 1.0 percent, to 1,050.78, and the Nasdaq composite index declined 23.81, or 1.1 percent, to 2,107.61. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 11.62, or 1.9 percent, to 601.75.

Coupled with a rising dollar, crude tumbled again on the NYMEX; dropping $3.08 to settle at $65.89 a barrel. These falling energy prices as of late are not a sign of optimism over economic growth. I think this week’s Fed meeting really had investors think long and hard as to whether this sucker can stand on its own.

Weekly Jobless Claims Fall

New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 530,000 last week.

The four-week moving average of new dipped to 553,500, the lowest since late January. The number of workers continuing to draw unemployment aid after an initial week of benefits fell 123,000 to 6.138 million in the week ending September 12.

Existing Home Sales Plummet

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes fell 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.10 million units from 5.24 million units in July. That compared to market expectations for a rise to a 5.35 million unit pace.

No Motion in the Blackberry Market

Research in Motion Limited, (RIMM) is getting hammered in after hours trading after reporting quarterly results. earned $475.6 million, or 83 cents a share, in the three months ended August 29. That was down from a profit of $495.5 million, or 86 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.53 billion from $2.58 billion a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting EPS of $1 on revenue of $3.63 billion.

For the current quarter, RIMM expects revenue between $3.6 billion and $3.85 billion and a profit of between $1 and $1.08 per share; disappointing the street estimates of $1.05 a share on revenue of $3.9 billion.