Great Day For The Dow–But Here’s The Real Story…
Stocks were higher on better earnings and guidance.
It was the best day for the Dow this year.
Large cap stocks were the big movers, but the smaller caps were left
behind. The market gapped up and had a
strong first hour rally, to bring the Dow up 140 points–only to decline all
afternoon or poor internals. CNBC’s Bob Pisani said “This was the least
impressive 90 point move in the Dow that I’ve seen in a long time.”
Chinese GDP for last quarter was much stronger than expected at 9.5%,
a big relief to commodities companies–steel and metals in particular. AKS and X
both reported excellent earnings.
Merck
(
MRK |
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PowerRating) was inline at 0.50 and beat on revenues. The company
said it had $604 million in reserves for Vioxx lawsuits.
DuPont
(
DD |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.04, pro-forma. Q4 net income fell, however.
Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.08.
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.04.
EMC Corp
(
EMC |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.04. Year over year revenue rose 27%.
Consumer Confidence rose unexpectedly in January, to 103 from 102.74
in December.
Anheuser Busch
(
BUD |
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PowerRating) is rolling out its new B(E) caffeinated
beer. The brew–which includes ginseng as well as caffeine–has down well in 55
test markets.
The price of a NYSE seat rose above $1 million yesterday; this, after making
a nine-year low several weeks ago.
After the close, Electronic
Arts
(
ARTS |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.06. Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
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PowerRating) beat by
0.02 but the company guided lower.
The Iraq elections are on Sunday, and OPEC meets then as well. Next week,
look for the FOMC.
Strong sectors were: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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PowerRating)
+4.63%, Semis Â
(
SOX.X |
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PowerRating) +1.78%,
Drugs
(
DRG.X |
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PowerRating) +1.14%
Weak sectors were: Gold
(
HUI.X |
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PowerRating) -3.26%, Utilities
(
UTY.X |
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PowerRating) -0.84%.
| Dow | +92.95 | 10,461.56 |
| S&P 500 | +4.66 | 1168.41 |
| Nasdaq | +11.25 | 2019.95 |
The dollar was +0.74 at
83.96
Crude Oil was +0.84 at
49.65
Gold was -5.00 to 421.8
1.9 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1647 | Up Vol 804 |
| Declining | 1672 | Down Vol 662 |
| 1.01 | 1.21 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1651 | Up Vol 1244 |
| Declining | 1431 | Down Vol 616 |
| 1.15 | 2.01 |
Stocks in the News
Coach
(
COH |
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PowerRating) guided higher and announced a 2:1 stock split
scheduled for April
Xerox
(
XRX |
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PowerRating) said its profits rose 15%, helped by good printer
demand.
Altera
(
ALTR |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.02; revenues rose 28%.
Cognex (CGNX)
beat by 0.03 but issued downside guidance.
JDA Software (JDAS)
beat by 0.08 and beat on revenues.
Lehman Brothers
(
LEH |
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PowerRating) raised its quarterly dividend by 25%.
Silicon Labs (SLAB)
beat by 0.04. Â Piper Jaffray upgraded the stock on valuation.
Netflix (NFLX)
beat by 0.04. Fourth quarter revenue and income more than doubled from a year
ago.
This Day in History
1959Â First scheduled transatlantic flight of a Boeing 707
Brice Wightman
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