New Names In The Semiconductor Index–Here They Are
Positive news from Intel
is outweighing a weaker than expected jobs report, sending the market
higher. Nonfarm payrolls rose 112,000 vs. a 200,000 expectation; it was the
weakest figure since July. October’s sizzling 337,000 number was revised to
303,000. Unemployment was 5.4% in November vs. 5.5% in October. Eight million
Americans are unemployed versus 140 million with jobs.
In its mid-quarter
update, Intel (INTC)
announced Q4 revenue will be much higher than expected; analysts were looking
for $8.97 billion but now the company says it expects Q4 sales to be in the
$9.3-$9.5 billion range. Margins are expected to be in-line with expectations.
The stock is trading up.
With the weak jobs number, interest rates are
lower, giving a lift to interest-rate sensitive stocks such as utilities, REITs
and homebuilders.
UBS doesn’t feel comfortable with the rise in
commodity-based stocks such as Alcoa and Alcoa, saying there is an emerging
cyclical slowdown.
As of today, the $SOX has some new names. Out are
Motorola
(
MOT |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and LSI Logic
(
LSI |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) and in are Freescale
(
FSL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Infineon
(
IFX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Marvell
(
MRVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Strong sectors are: Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.64%, Oil
Services
(
OSX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.95%, Computer Technology
(
XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.50%.
Weak sectors are: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+3.57%, Banks
(
BKS.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.53%, Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.50%.
| Dow | +30.01 | 10615.13 |
| S&P 500 | +3.48 | 1193.81 |
| Nasdaq | +10.86 | 2154.43 |
The dollar is -0.59 at
81.36
Gold is +1.70 to 450.90
Crude Oil is -0.45 at 42.80
1.25 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1973 | Up Vol 399 |
| Declining | 1180 | Down Vol 274 |
| Ratio | 1.67 | 1.45 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1376 | Up Vol 869 |
| Declining | 1556 | Down Vol 323 |
| Ratio | 1.13 | 2.69 |
Stocks in the News.
Semiconductor HOLDRs
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are in play after the Intel news.
The New York Times said that IBM may be putting its PC business
up for sale–worth potentially $2 billion.
American Greetings
(
AM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will cut 300 jobs to reduce costs.
Biomira
(
BIOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said Phase II trials of its lung cancer drug were
encouraging.
Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded at Wachovia to market perform from
outperform.
BJ’s Wholesale, Target and Costco were cut to sell at
Lazard.
Ann Taylor
(
ANN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded at Merrill, JP Morgan and Deutsche
Bank.
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Today in History
1931 Alka Seltzer went on sale
Brice Wightman