Market Shocker

March 11, 2004
Brice Wightman

Stocks
fell sharply Thursday, closing at their intraday lows.
In the biggest drop since May 19, 2003, the Dow fell
1.63% and is now off 5.76% from the Feb. 11 highs, which is the first 5%
correction in one year. The Dow is down 3.11% year to date and the Nasdaq is
down 2.97%. It was one year ago today the indices bottomed at the onset of the
Iraq War.

The market sold off in short order late in the day after a London-based
Arabic newspaper said it received a note in which al Qaeda claimed
responsibility for the Madrid bombing today which killed 190 people. A van
containing a Koran and seven detonators was seized by police. At press time the
authenticity of the letter had not been determined. Al Qaeda does not normally
claim responsibility for its actions. France said it was raising its terror
alert.

Initial claims were revised to
341,000, down 6,000, with the 4-week average down to 345K from 353K. Retail sales
rose by 0.6%, the largest increase since November.

National Semiconductor
(
NSM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced Q3 which beat by 0.06, ex-items, and guided above the Q4 consensus and
announced a $400 million stock buyback program. The stock was halted briefly
ahead of the report and closed at 38.31, +0.11.

Greenspan testified before the House Education Committee, warning against
protectionism policies.

ImClone
(
IMCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) filed suit against Sam Waksal in an attempt to collect
more than $21 million for unpaid income taxes they paid for Sam Waksal.

After the close, Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported Q3 of $0.12. and $2.509 billion revenues, in-line. “This is
a very strong quarter in our database business,” said CEO Larry Ellison.

Dow	-168.51	10128.38
S&P 500	-17.10	1106.79
Nasdaq	-20.26	1974.99

Economic news releases today
included export prices ex-ag that rose by 0.6%, Import prices ex-oil that was up
a disappointing 0.4%. Initial claims were 6K better at 341K. Retail sales rose
by 0.6%.

10-year Notes were -010
at 115 280

Dollar was -0.43 at
88.52

Gold was +1.52 at 400.37

Crude Oil was +0.85 at
36.95

Volume was
1,717,677,000 on the NYSE, and
2,009,950,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE	Issues
Advancing	898	Up Vol 254
Declining	2420	Down Vol 1612
Ratio	2.69	7.13
Nasdaq
Advancing	881	Up Vol 544
Declining	2287	Dow Vol 1544
Ratio	2.59	2.83

Stocks in the news:

Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is delaying the
release of its SQL Server database and Visual Studio studio by 6 months until
the second half of 2005 instead of the end of 2004, impacting renewals of long-term licensing contracts.

Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) leaped 8% after hiring
Goldman Sachs to look into possible sales of its Mervyn’s and Marshallfields units.

Quicksilver
(
ZQK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported first-quarter earnings
that rose to $9.2 million on revenue of $256.1 million. It expects 2004 earnings
to reach $1.22 on revenue of $1.1 billion.

Yellow Roadway
(
YELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised first-quarter 2004
forecast saying it expects to reach all February profitability targets. Earnings
are expected to reach 0.30 for the next quarter. Trucking companies are strong
today.

bricew@tradingmarkets.com

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