Look Who’s Next On Spitzer’s List
Stocks ended the week on a
very positive note. Strong retail
sales and consumer confidence along with positive earnings reports from Dell and
Pixar pushed the S&P 500 to levels not seen since August 2001. Stocks
started the session higher but then drifted for most of the session before some
late session buying took stocks higher. Volume was especially high on the Nasdaq
as volume was just shy of the 2 billion share mark. Equities also benefited from
lower crude prices, oil dropped over $2 this week. The S&P, Nasdaq
Composite, and the Dow have now closed higher for three straight weeks.Â
Retail Sales for October came in at 0.2% vs.
consensus of 0.1%. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.9% vs. consensus of
0.6%. This was the highest jump since May.Â
The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment
Index for November came in at 95.5 vs. consensus of 93.0.Â
Pixar
(
PIXR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained more than 8%
today. The animation company reported third quarter results that blew past
expectations. Pixar earned 38 cents a share vs. estimates of 24 cents a
share thanks to strong sales of “Finding Nemo”.
Charles Schwab
(
SCH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gained more than 3% after the discount broker reported daily client trading
volume up 16% from September.Â
FedEx
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) recovered from earlier losses to a new 52 week
high. The shipping giant has been ordered by the U.S. government to repay
$29 million in excess funds. This stems from an initial award of $119 that FedEx
was entitled to from the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.
FedEx will dispute the demand.Â
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed
suit against San Diego based Universal Life Resources. The suit charges
the disability and life insurance broker with taking kick backs from more
favorable insurers.Â
| Dow | +69.17 | 10539.01 |
| S&P 500 | +10.69 | 1184.17 |
| Nasdaq | +24.07 | 2085.34 |
Strong sectors are: Disk
Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.87%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.51 %,
Gold & Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.44%.
Weak sectors are: Transports
(
TRAN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.81%, Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.59, Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.38%.
The dollar was -0.73 at
83.71
Gold is +2.90 at 438.30
Crude Oil is -0.10 at 47.32
1.97 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2378 | Up Vol 1380 |
| Declining | 893 | Down Vol 458 |
| Ratio | 2.66 | 3.01 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1866 | Up Vol 1355 |
| Declining | 1211 | Down Vol 629 |
| Ratio | 1.54 | 2.15 |
Brice Wightman