Are Rate Increases About To End?

  • November 22, 2005
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks rallied on Tuesday after the Fed
gave the bulls an early Christmas present.  FOMC
minutes, released mid-session, indicated that the Fed’s rate increases may
soon be coming to an end  The main concern seemed to be inflation and
that high energy prices may soon be reflected in prices of other goods. Some
members cautioned of “risks of going too far” with rate increases and
generally agreed that any disruptions caused by the recent hurricanes would be
“limited and temporary.”

Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) helped boost the Dow on news of a
flash memory joint venture with Micron Technology
(
MU |
Quote |
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PowerRating). Many sectors
made new highs, with oil services and transports making historic highs.

Barry James, President of the James Advantage
Funds, said “I think in the short run we’ll head a little bit
higher–especially with the Fed announcement that they’re looking at the
possibility of curtailing the rate hikes–but overall we think the market is
going to head down. The research we do measures the risk at about 2:1 that we
would see a correction and potentially a very significant correction in the
market.”

Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) released xbox 360;
the company expects to sell as many as 3 million units in the first 90 days.
Gamestop

(
GME |
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PowerRating), Best Buy
(
BBY |
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PowerRating)
and Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
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News |
PowerRating) are all selling xbox.

Heinz
(
HNZ |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.08, ex-items.

Deere
(
DE |
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News |
PowerRating)
beat the Reuters estimate by by 0.19; the stock rose 7%.

After the close, Sharper Image
(
SHRP |
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PowerRating)
missed by 0.03 and Michael’s Stores
(
MIK |
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News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03.



Strong sectors were:   Oil Services
(
OSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.19%   
Disk Drives

(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.17%    Natural Gas

(
XNG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.89%             



Weak sectors were:   Airlines

(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.09%    Healthcare

(
HCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.46%    Pharmaceuticals

(
DRG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.26%  


Dow

+51.15
10,871.43


Nasdaq

 +11.89 2253.56


S&P 500

+6.38 1261.23

More stocks on the move:

Albertson’s
(
ABS |
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News |
PowerRating)
missed by 0.03 but guided 2006 higher.

Cyberonics
(
CYBX |
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News |
PowerRating) missed by 0.05,
reporting a loss of 0.88.

Dollar General

(
DG |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) reports before the open; look for 0.19.

Petco
(
PETC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is due to report after the close on Tuesday; look for 0.26.

Brice Wightman


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