Why Were These 3 Semis Upgraded Today?
Stocks
are higher for the first time in four days.
Spanish police said that they will pursue all credible leads to catch the Madrid
train attackers that left 200 dead and 1400 injured. New York City is
implementing new security measures with bomb-sniffing dogs in its subway system.
According to an International
Energy Agency report, Crude Oil is expected to strengthen due to a
booming Chinese economy. The Michigan sentiment number fell to 94.1 in March
from 954.4 in February over joblessness in the recovering US economy.
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Broadcom
(
BRCM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Micron
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) were upgraded by Oppenheimer,
stating that the 15% drop in the semiconductor industry has made these stocks
more attractive and their fundamentals remain sound. JP Morgan and Morgan
Stanley upgraded Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on the personal computer sales outlook.
DELL is trading 3% higher.
| Dow | +75.40 |
10203.78 |
| S&P 500 |
+9.75 | 1116.55 |
| Nasdaq | +30.84 |
1974.60 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Multimedia
(
GIP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.93%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.75%,
Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.64%, and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.59%.
Weak today are Amex Goldbugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.39%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.21%.
Economic news releases today
included business inventories that rose a mere 0.1%, current account that
narrowed to -$127.5 billion and the Michigan sentiment number that fell to 94.1.
10-year Notes are +65 at
117 160
The dollar
is +0.93 at 89.42
Gold is -3.70 at 397.30
Crude Oil is -0.82 at
35.96
The euro
is +0.85 at 123.19
Volume is 709,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 889,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2027 | Up Vol 545 |
| Declining | 1067 | Down Vol 148 |
| Ratio | 1.90 | 3.68 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2063 | Up Vol 703 |
| Declining | 891 | Dow Vol 151 |
| Ratio | 2.21 | 4.65 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Walt Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.36% at
25.80, Alcoa [AA|AA],
+2.21% at 35.03, IBM [IBM|IBM]
+2.15% at 93.16, and Intel [INTC|INTC],
+2.04% at 27.60.
Stocks in the news:
Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will
acquire Twingo Systems for $5 million in cash, a provider of desktop security
solutions for Secure Socket Layer.
According to
The Washington Post, the US government has
decided to order 75 million doses of the experimental anthrax vaccine at a cost
of over R700 million. Vaxgen
(
VXGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Avecia previously won orders
to stockpile 2 million doses and are expected be involved once again.
Aetna
(
AET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised
its 2004 profit estimates, expecting to earn at least $1.68 a share the next
quarter with full year earnings at $6.60 at share on increasing membership and
lower costs.
Titan
(
TTN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said it would delay its shareholder vote over the pending merger with Lockheed
Martin.