Two Stocks Helping To Build Momentum…

After yesterday’s strong move to the upside,
US
stocks are back on the rise today, being pushed by Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
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PowerRating)

and General Electric
(
GE |
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. HPQ’s quarterly profit jumped almost
fourfold and General Electric is increasing its dividend and told investors
that it would take a $1.4 billion charge in the fourth quarter to increase
reserves in its Employers Reinsurance Corp. unit, less than the amount some
analysts had predicted in recent sessions. The Dow component also trimmed its
2002 earnings outlook but upped its dividend as it held its analyst meeting
Thursday.

The advance drove the Standard & Poor’s 500
Index

(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
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PowerRating)
to the highest since Aug. 27, extending its gain to
20% from the five-year low reached on Oct. 9. Indexes are headed to their
third straight losing year.

The S&P 500 rose 16.16, or 1.8% to 930.31 as of 12:54 p.m. ET. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU |
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PowerRating)
added almost 200.00,
or 2%, to 8793.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index
(
$COMPQ |
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PowerRating)

climbed 38.85, or 2.7%, to 1458.20, the highest since June.

Techs are the session’s outperformers, with chip
and PC stocks taking the lead. In the broader market, airline, financial and
biotech are what investors are looking at. Only gold and consumer stocks
struggled with mild losses.

Volume totaled 869 million on the NYSE and at
1.19 billion on the Nasdaq. Winners took out losers by 21 to 10 on the NYSE and
by 20 to 11 on the Nasdaq.

Genesis Microchip
(
GNSS |
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PowerRating)
has built a
nice base and is attempting to break out above its 20.00 resistance. Today
volume is strong. GNSS has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 98
and an up trending

ADX
of 39. GNSS is trading at 19.07 up 1.07.

Storage Technology
(
STK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has broken
out above the 20.00 resistance with strong volume. STK has a

TradingMarkets.com rating of 93
and an up trending

ADX
of 37. STK is trading at 21.29 up 1.38.

Hutchinson Technology
(
HTCH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is
breaking out above resistance with strong volume into the 52-week high area. The
resistance area is the 38.2% retracement drawn on the weekly chart. HTCH has a


TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 92
and an up trending

ADX
of 55. HTCH is trading at 26.64 up 1.12.

Varian Semiconductor
(
VSEA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is
breaking out of a head-and-shoulders pattern with strong volume. VSEA has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 84
and an up trending

ADX
of 32.

Nasdaq Market Breadth

Adv: 2094 UpVol: 12078231

Dec: 1018 DnVol: 1246688

Net: +1076 Net: +10831543

NYSE Market Breadth

Adv: 2172 UpVol: 99029430

Dec: 997 DnVol: 18829647

Net: +1175 Net: +80199783