BSX Joins JNJ In This Lucrative Cardiovascular Market
Stocks
are mixed, with economists pondering the economic outlook.
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.
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’s
(
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.
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.
| Dow | +15.18 |
10603.59 |
| S&P 500 |
+3.57 | 1158.40 |
| Nasdaq | -1.06 | 2053.81 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.10%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.87%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.34%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.35%, and Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.99%.
Weak today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.29%, and Disk Drives [DDX|DDX]
-0.57%.
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 are +1175
at 116 205
The dollar
is -1.16 at 88.06
Gold is +6.50 at 399.70
Crude oil is +0.41 at
37.05
The euro
is +0.02 at 121.88
Volume is 710,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,204,000,000 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%.