Why Traders Are Watching The Semis
Stocks are lower on a mix of disappointing economic news.
Michigan Sentiment for the month of April
was lower at 93.2 from the expected 97.0 and US industrial output fell -0.2%.
Capacity utilization was also lower at 76.5%. The Semiconductor Index
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
traded down to its 200-day sma. IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
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PowerRating) reported earnings that met
Wall Street consensus of $1.60 billion with revenue at $22.3 billion.
Nokia
(
NOK |
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PowerRating) said its
profit margin will decline to 25.6% on increased competition and an eroding
market share. NOK reported a 16% drop in profit to $977.3 million with
second-quarter sales expected to remain flat to lower.
| Dow | +42.58 |
10439.32 |
| S&P 500 |
-5.82 | 1134.58 |
| Nasdaq | -2.25 | 1999.92 |
The day’s leading sectors are
REITs
(
DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 1.79%, Banks
(
BIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.38%,Â
Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.23%, and BiotechsÂ
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.99%,
Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.3% and Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.27%,
Economic news releases today
included higher housing starts at 2007K and increased building permits at 1946K.
Capacity utilization was lower at 76.5%, Michigan Sentiment dropped to 93.2 and
Industrial production turned negative at -0.2%.
10-year Notes are +170
at 111 225
The dollar
is -0.33 at 90.03
Gold is +3.30 at 401.60
Crude oil is -0.25 at
36.85
Volume is 701,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 985,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
2297 | Up Vol 441 |
| Declining | 845 | Down Vol 237 |
| Ratio | 2.72 | 1.90 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1587 | Up Vol 392 |
| Declining |
1429 | Down Vol 556 |
| Ratio | 1.08 | 1.41 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.84% at
33.93, McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.59% at 27.65, Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.02% at 35.20, and General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.73% at 31.29.
Stocks in the news:
Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a third-quarter loss of 23 cents a share, with revenue down 5% to $2.65
billion. It was the 12th consecutive quarter of lower year-over-year revenue.
DoubleClick
(
DCLK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings in line with consensus, earning $7.7 million with revenue at $68
million. The company guided lower expecting revenue to reach $72 million with
EPS of 6 cents.
Netflix
(
NFLX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded lower
after reporting a $5.8 million on increased marketing expenses. Revenue rose to
$100.4, $0.9 million higher than the consensus.
Transmeta
(
TMTA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a
net-loss of $23.4 million on revenue that rose to $5.3 million. TMTA expects
next quarter earnings to be about 14 cents.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com