Here’s What CEOS Are Saying About Jobs

• June 2, 2004
• Brice Wightman

 

Stocks
gapped higher but gave up most of the gains. Volume is on the light
side as this is a holiday shortened week, and some traders are waiting for the
important employment number on Friday. Oil
prices eased off $42 level after pledges from OPEC members to ramp up
production. The United Arab Emirates called for a 2.5 million barrel per day production boost and
said they will pump an
additional
400K barrels per day this month. This is in addition to the 700K barrel increase Saudi Arabia
pledged.
OPEC meets tomorrow in Beirut.

After signs of a sluggish demand for SUVs, GM
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised cash rebates
for most of its 2003, and 2004 model year vehicles to as much as $5000 for
previous owners. McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower after Prudential
downgraded the stock to Neutral. Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded by
Banc of America Securities to Neutral on traffic concerns.

Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said
it would stop manufacturing its Nutropin Depot drug for human growth deficiency
due to higher costs. Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) got a lift after Air New Zealand made
a commitment to spend $851 million on 10 jets, including two 7E7 Dreamliners.

The Mortgage Bankers
Association said loan applications to buy homes rose last week. Their purchase
index rose 2.2% for the week ended May 29. A survey of U.S. CEOs indicates 38%
of chief execs plan to add jobs over the next six months. The Business
Roundtable also showed that 43% expect no change in employment at their
companies; this is down from 45% three months ago.

In a letter, Greenspan
said that because of slack in the economy and low inflation, the Fed could
likely raise rates at a gradual pace.

Dow	+9.93	10211.87
S&P 500	-0.97	1120.52
Nasdaq	-7.80	1982.57

Strong today are Healthcare
Provider
(
RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.61%; Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.60%;
REITs
(
DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.55%; Transport
(
$TRANX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.50%.,

Weak today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.27%; Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.7%,  

No economic news releases
today.

10-year Notes are -20 at
109 180

The dollar
is +0.06 at 88.97

Gold is -3.60 at 391.00

Crude Oil is -1.06 at
41.27

Volume is 559,000
million on the NYSE, and 755,000 million on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE	Issues
Advancing	1632	Up Vol 238
Declining	1477	Down Vol 303
Ratio	1.05	1.29
Nasdaq
Advancing	1341	Up Vol 305
Declining	1597	Down Vol 394
Ratio	1.19	1.30

Top Dow stocks are:

SBC Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.23% at 24.05, Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.96% at 24.10, Coca Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.92% at 51.55, American International Group
(
AIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.83% at 73.56.

Stocks in the news:

Lockheed Martin
(
LMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was awarded
a $492 million contract for the initial production of 24 F/A-22s fighter jets.

Xilinx
(
XLNX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it expects revenue to rise 5 to
8% and expects gross margins to be about 64% in the first-quarter. An analyst at
Prudential Equity Group lowered his price target to $44 from $46.

NY State AG Eliot Spitzer sued
GlaxoSmithKline
(
GSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), claiming fraud over its
anti-depressant drug Paxil. The suit claims the company withheld negative
information and misrepresented data.

Fairchild Semiconductor
(
FCS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reiterated its second-quarter sales forecast but cautioned that there
is great volatility in its backlog which may affect their ability to meet the
forecast. CIBC upgraded the stock on the news.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com