Why We Fear A Weak Dollar
This piece was
written by Greg Che.
Markets opened lower Thursday and are
continuing to trade that way.
The U.S. dollar fell against the
European currencies once again. With the CPI Core number coming in 0.2% higher,
pretty much in line with the consensus, and jobless claims falling by 8000 to 380,000,
which was better than expected, you may have thought that the markets would have
moved higher. The weakness in the dollar is just a knee-jerk reaction to the
global environmental conditions. The fear that foreign investors will pull their money out
of the new corporate bonds purchased over the last year is most likely not going
to happen. Why? Because the U.S. economy is not in a full recession and our yields are
still good.
Breadth thus far for the session is
negative with decliners outpacing advancers on the NYSE by a ratio of 17 to 12.
The Nasdaq is down 32.58 at 1886.31, the
Dow is down 58.47 at 10287.48, and the S&P 500 is down 9.89 at 1168.13.
Stocks moving higher in the midst of a
down session are Fox Entertainment Group
(
FOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which is up 1.45 points.
Ryder Systems
(
R |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is trading at
20.98 up 1.08 after Morgan Stanley upgraded the company from Neutral to
Outperform.
Bakery giant Panera Bread
(
PNRA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is climbing today gaining 2.46 after posting Q2 earnings of 16 cents share
beating analysts’ consensus by a penny. The company also raised its guidance for
2002 to $1.16.
After losing ground yesterday, Advance
PCS
(
ADVP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is resuming its upward movement as it has tacked on 2.34.
Comverse Technologies
(
CMVT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is
up 1.75 points on the upgrade by Goldman Sachs to Recommend List from Market
Outperform.
Stocks losing ground in the session
are China Mobile
(
CHL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which is sliding lower 3.37 points after reporting
that first-half profits of $1.67 billion falling short of forecasts.
Financial services company Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter
(
MWD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) shares are stumbling 2.59 points on the news that
Charles Schwab
(
SCH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in talks with Jefferies Group
(
JEF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), an
institutional advisory firm.
The tech sector is getting killed with
the likes of Brocade Communications
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which is trading lower at this
time. Losing 3.39.
Ciena
(
CIEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is down 9.32 after
lowering guidance for 2001 and 2002.
Software maker Veritas Software
(
VRTS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is sinking 2.84 points, and Peoplesoft
(
PSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is down 2.99.
Not many sectors are in the green at
this hour. Moving higher are the Transportation Index
(
$TRX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), the Gold
and Silver Index
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and the Forest and Paper Index
(
$FPP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Lagging in the session are the Oil
Services Index
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) , Insurance Index
(
$IIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and the
Securities Broker Dealer Index
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).