Will US Follow Japan’s Strongest Gain In 30 Years?
Stocks are
lower on disappointing economic indicators and worries of skyrocketing energy
prices. Factory orders were weak at
+0.3%, much lower than the consensus of +1.5%. OPEC decided to cut April
production output by 1 million barrels despite crude prices reaching 13-year
highs with gasoline prices hovering at 18-year highs. The Nikkei closed off its
fiscal year with a 47% gain, the strongest in 30 years.
AaiPharma
(
AAII |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said it would not file its 2003 annual report within the 15-day extension
period. This may lead to delisting of its stock from the Nasdaq. Electronics
retailer Best Buy
(
BBY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of $469 million and revenue
rose 21% to $8.4 billion. Earnings of 32 cents are forecast, with same-store
sales up 8%.
| Dow | -24.58 |
10357.52 |
| S&P 500 |
-0.96 | 1126.30 |
| Nasdaq | -5.92 | 1994.44 |
The day’s leading sectors are Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.69%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 1.53%, Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.72% and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.65%,
Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.93% and Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.88%.
Economic news releases today
included factory orders that missed the 1.5% consensus and Chicago PMI dropping
to 57.6..
10-year Notes are +110
at 115 060
The dollar
is -0.92 at 87.86
Gold is +4.80 at 427.60
Crude oil is -0.75 at
34.75
The euro
is +0.14 at 122.39
Volume is 628,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 877,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1640 | Up Vol 302 |
| Declining | 1473 | Down Vol 260 |
| Ratio | 1.12 | 1.15 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1341 | Up Vol 307 |
| Declining |
1624 | Down Vol 491 |
| Ratio | 1.23 | 1.58 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.13% at
40.70, Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.65% at 26.12, Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.62% at
54.59, and United Tech
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.29% at 85.93.
Stocks in the news:
Retailer Circuit City
(
CC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will buy InterTan
(
ITN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $284 million. The company also reported
better earnings on lower expenses with revenue +2% to $3.25 billion.
Merrill Lynch and
Smith Barney raised its
ratings on Eli Lilly
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) citing an under-appreciated drug pipeline
and better growth outlook than competitors.
Qlogic
(
QLGC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lowered its
fourth-quarter outlook citing lower demand. It now expects to earn 36 cents a
share with revenue to be around $128 million. Several brokerages downgraded the
stock which is down 20%.
Usana Health Science
(
USNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lowered first-quarter earnings to 29 cents a share due to higher-than-expected
costs, including entering the Mexican market. For the full year, earnings are
expected to be around $250 million.