What Moved Today And Why
The
major indexes posted gains going into the holiday weekend, as the
day’s top news centered around the UN Security Council’s attention to Iraq.
Between chairman of UN Monitoring Hans Blix, Secretary of State Colin Powell,
and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, no clarity to the situation appeared
to be achieved. The markets’ upside was helped along by a strong performance
from the semiconductors, which was inspired by positive earnings from Analog
Devices and Nvidia. Meanwhile, the defensive gold and silver index closed at the
bottom of its five-day trading range in a show of indecision. At this juncture,
recent buying in the indexes may be a product of short covering, as gold and
silver holds ground above its 200-day moving average.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed +2.05% at 7,908.80. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed +2.14% at 834.89. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed +2.56% at
1,310.17.
Biggest gainers were
semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), 5.80%, airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+3.37%, telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.19%, and computer hardware
(
$HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+3.06%.
Biggest decliners were gold
and silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -3.18%, healthcare providers
(
$RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.66%, and forest and paper
(
$FPP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.84%.
In economic news, business
inventories came in at 0.6% vs. expectations of 0.2%, industrial
production came in at 0.7% vs. expectations of 0.3%, capacity utilization
came in at 75.7% vs. expectations of 75.6%, and Michigan Sentiment came
in at 79.2 vs. expectations of 81.9.
The Ten Year Note
(
TYH3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was -175 at 114 260.
The U.S. Dollar
(
DXH3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was +0.53 at 100.25.
Volume was below
average, with the NYSE coming in at 1,342,520,000
and the Nasdaq at 1,299,052,000.
Market breadth was positive,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of 1.76, and up
volume over down volume by a 3.63 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining
issues came in at 1.64, and up volume beat down volume by a 5.72 ratio.
The
VIX was -1.35 at 37.10. The
TRIN was -0.80 at 0.48.
Leading the Dow were:
Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.95% at 17.79, SBC
Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.00% at 23.35, Intel Corp.
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+3.99% at 16.15, United Tech
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.92% at 61.95, Walt Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.71% at 16.73, and Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.20% at 32.20.
Stocks in the news:
Personal computer maker Dell Computer
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+10.83% at 25.77, met its fourth-quarter estimates and was upgraded by First
Albany to “buy” from “neutral”. The company’s net profit is up 32% from a year
ago.
Chip maker Analog Devices
(
ADI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +7.71% at
25.72, beat its first-quarter earnings expectations by $0.01 with profits of
$0.17 per share. The company has also been upgraded by Bank of America to
“neutral” from “sell.”
Also in the chip biz, Nvidia
(
NVDA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +21.98% at
12.04, reported earnings ahead of Wall Street expectations, and was subsequently
upgraded by several brokerages.
Broker Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.02% at 33.75, had
its price target raised by Prudential to $44 citing the stock’s tendency to
rebound when trading below 1.5x book.
Grocery retailer Winn-Dixie
(
WIN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +7.61% at
12.44, was upgraded by CSFB to “neutral” from “underperform.”
Drug maker Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.85% at
51.75, was upgraded by AG Edwards to “buy” from “hold.”
Retailer Sears
(
S |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.25% at 21.85, was the
subject of a negative Business Week report which claims the company’s
credit card business may pose big problems for the company.
Doughnut maker Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
(
KKD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+9.68% at 31.15, reaffirmed its 2003 guidance, and has raised its estimates for
2004.
Software maker Intuit
(
INTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +6.62% at 44.43,
beat its second-quarter earnings expectations by $0.04 with profits of $0.61 per
share.
Security systems company Invision
(
INVN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.45% at 23.82, beat its fourth-quarter earnings expectations by $0.16 per
share with profits of $2.40 per share. The company has also guided higher for
the first-quarter.
Tool maker Black & Decker
(
BDK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.47% at
35.60, had coverage initiated on it by JP Morgan at “overweight.”
In the biotech sector, Biogen
(
BGEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.18% at
37.64, adjusted its 2002 results to reflect a legal settlement with Berlex to
whom it will pay $55 million. It has also been reported that the company’s
interferon drugs have no effect beyond one year.
danielb@tradingmarkets.com