Martha Goes Down; KMRT Slumps On News
Stocks
ended mixed, with economists pondering the economic outlook.
After three days of jury deliberation, Martha
Stewart was found guilty of all charges. Her former broker Peter Bacanovic was
convicted on four out of five counts. Each count carries a 5-year sentence and a
fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for June. Stewart insists that she has
done nothing wrong and will appeal the guilty verdict. Trading of
Martha Stewart Living
Omnimedia
(
MSO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was halted and the stock closed -22%. Kmart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
slumped 1.19% after reaching a 52-week high in intraday trading.
Payrolls for the month of
February nudged up a minute 21,000, much lower than the predicted 125,000 new
jobs, with a big debate over outsourcing. December and November job gains were
also sharply lower. GDP estimates may need to be cut if jobs do not recover,
while lower interest rates and a weak dollar would provide strength to
commodities such as copper and gold, which continued to rally on the dollar’s
decline. Treasury yields fell sharply on the news with a bond surge helping to
ease rate fears. As a result, homebuilders and mortgage lenders were all near
52-week highs.
Boston Scientific
(
BSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
became the second company (after Johnson & Johnson) to receive FDA
approval for its Taxus drug-coated stent, designed to keep clogged arteries open
and eliminate the need for repeat procedures.
| Dow | +7.55 | 10595.55 |
| S&P 500 |
+1.99 | 1156.86 |
| Nasdaq | -7.48 | 2047.63 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.87%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.83%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.40%, Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.40%,and Banks
(
BIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.23%.
Weak today were Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.11%, and Software [GSO|GSO]
-0.83%.
Economic news releases today
included the average workweek holding at 33.8 hours; hourly earnings nudging up
0.2%; nonfarm payrolls a disappointing 21,000 and the unemployment rate holding
steady at 5.6%.
10-year Notes were +1170
at 116 200
The dollar
was -0.99 at 88.23
Gold was +8.40 at 401.60
Crude oil was +0.01 at
37.26
The euro
was +1.82 at 123.70
Volume was 1,360,000,000
on the NYSE, and 2,036,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
2189 | Up Vol 441 |
| Declining | 973 | Down Vol 252 |
| Ratio | 2.25 | 1.75 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1547 | Up Vol 582 |
| Declining |
1478 | Dow Vol 580 |
| Ratio | 1.05 | 1.02 |
Top Dow stocks are:
McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+3.50% at 29.89, ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.61% at 42.46, JP Morgan
[JPM|JPM] +1.45% at
42.26, and Citigroup [C|C],
+1.37% at 50.01.
Stocks in the news:
Lehman Brothers upgraded Conexant Systems
(
CNXT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and raised its price target to $10 citing GlobespanVirata’s
expected contribution to earnings.
Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 4%
after Standard & Poors cut its corporate rating to BB+ from BBB on profitability
concerns.
McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded 4% higher after
reporting a 20.1% increase in its February US same-store sales. Worldwide sales
are up 13.9%.
Tivo
(
TIVO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a much smaller
loss of $12.4 million compared to $32.5 million in the year-ago period with
revenue rising 85% to $42.6 million. The company will spend up to $50 million to
double its subscriber base on boosted subscription forecasts.