Do You Know This Interesting Fact?
Stocks were lower, closing on their lows for the
year.
Stocks gapped up slightly on several good earnings reports but slid
through the day. The Dow was down for the first three weeks in January; the last
time this happened was 1982.
GE posted quarterly profits which rose 18%, beating by a penny at
0.51. A year ago the company earned 0.45. United Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat the street, reporting 1.29 and
backed its 10-15% growth forecast this year. Fortune Brands
(
FO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.08 and targets double digit earnings
in 2005.
Thus far for the quarter, 69 companies in the S&P 500 (66%) have reported.
Overall, companies have come in 5.1% above estimates.
The University of Michigan sentiment index fell to 95.8 in January from 97.1
in December.
Crude oil is near 7-week highs; the airline index is down 21% this month.
If you’re following the January Barometer, the Nasdaq is down 5.5% for
the first 3 weeks of January; on average, the Naz is up 3.9% in January. Interestingly, in 2003 the Nasdaq fell 8% for the
first 3 weeks but the index shot up 50% that year. Another interesting
fact: The market has never been down for the year in a year ending in “5.”
Here is how the major indices fared for the week:
Dow Transports  -2.6%
Nasdaq             Â
-2.4%
Dow                  Â
-1.4%
S&PÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
-1.2%
Russell 2000Â Â Â Â Â Â -1.1%
Strong sectors were: Gold
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.66%, Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.66%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.57%.
Weak sectors were: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.59%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.30%, Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.96%.
| Dow | -78.48 | 10,392.99 |
| S&P 500 | -7.59 | 1167.82 |
| Nasdaq | -11.61 | 2034.27 |
The dollar was -0.39 at
83.26
Crude Oil was +1.29 at
48.60
Gold was +5.80 to 427.10
billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1604 | Up Vol 607 |
| Declining | 1680 | Down Vol 853 |
| 1.04 | 1.40 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1308 | Up Vol 660 |
| Declining | 1772 | Down Vol 1207 |
| 1.35 | 1.82 |
Stocks in the News
Lam Research (LRCX)
beat by 0.06. Q2 income soared 10-fold.
Harmonic (HLIT)
beat by 0.04 and guided higher.
Scientific Atlanta (SFA)
beat by a penny but was light on revenues.
KLA-Tencor (KLAC)
beat by 0.02 on revenues that also beat estimates.
Xilinx (XLNX)
beat by a penny.
CheckFree (CKFR)
beat by 005.
Brice Wightman
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