Crucial Level For The Market — Here’s Why
Stocks are lower on continued worries of a sooner-than-expected interest rate hike
by the Fed. The Dow, Nasdaq and
the Russell 2000 broke through their crucial 200-day MA levels–the lowest since
mid-December. The Dow and the S&P 500 fell below their trading ranges for the
year with declining volume exceeding advancers by 10:1..
Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will pay $2.65 billion to settle a class-action suit from WorldCom stock and bond
holders for its alleged participation in the WorldCom scandal. The company admits no guilt. Citigroup will take a charge of $4.95
billion in the second quarter to increase reserves.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi
called for OPEC to increase output by 1.5 million barrels a day to tame rising
oil prices that peaked to $40 for the first time in 13 years on Friday.
| Dow | -146.75 |
9971.50 |
| S&P 500 |
-14.26 |
1083.35 |
| Nasdaq | -29.02 |
1888.71 |
Strong today are Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.98%, and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.73%,
Â
Weak today are Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.36%, Oil Index
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.30%, and Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.21%.
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes are +20 at
108 175
The dollar
is +0.64 at 91.95
Gold is -3.30 at 375.80
Crude Oil is -0.65 at
39.28
Volume is 900,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 966,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
278 | Up Vol 77 |
| Declining | 3045 | Down Vol 791 |
| Ratio | 10.95 | 10.31 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
490 | Up Vol 171 |
| Declining |
2623 | Down Vol 736 |
| Ratio | 5.35 | 4.30 |
Top Dow stocks are:
WalMart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.20% at 54.53; McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.63% at 26.85; Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.62% at 25.98; and Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.22% at 55.46.
Stocks in the news:
Prudential downgraded JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on
Citigroup’s announcement of its $2.65 billion settlement. Prudential believes
JPM needs a larger reserve for its WorldCom and Enron involvement.
SunTrust Banks
(
STI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire
National Commerce Financial
(
NCF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in a $7 billion stock and cash deal.
SunTrust expects to achieve annual cost savings of $117 million.
McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported global same-store sales
that rose 10.5% for the month of April with US same-store sales up 13.5%.
Cablevision Systems
(
CVC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a net-loss of
$120 million with revenue up 9% to $1.19 billion.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com