Oils Profit Crudely
Stocks turned in a mixed performance
Thursday as rising crude lifted oils, drugs caught a weak bounce and retailers
sank on earnings fears. Biotech and tech headed lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average added
2.93 points, or 0.03%, to 10908.76. The S&P 500 lost 12.62 points, or 0.9%,
to 1460.25. Nasdaq Composite declined 93.51 points, or 2.4%, to 3759.99.
The Amex Oil Index
(
$XOI.X |
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PowerRating) and
the CBOE Oil Index
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$OIX.X |
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PowerRating) both rose 1.3%. On the New York Mercantile
Exchange, September crude
(
CLU0 |
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PowerRating) rose .99 to 31.34 a barrel, a record
closing high. The day before, the contract cleared $30 a barrel for the first
time in three weeks. Sep unleaded gas
(
HOU0 |
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PowerRating) traded up .6444 at .9264 a
gallon, the biggest percentage move Thursday in the energy futures markets.
Texaco
(
TX |
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Chevron
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CHV |
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RD |
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3/8.
The S&P Transportation Index
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$TRX.X |
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PowerRating)
rose 1.1%. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index
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$DRG.X |
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PowerRating) gained 1.0%, a feeble
bounce after drug makers’ sympathetic losses Wednesday following Eli Lilly’s
(
LLY |
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patent setback on Prozac. Merck
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MRK |
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fell fractionally to 76.
On the downside, another earnings
warning from The Gap
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GPS |
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$RLX.X |
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selling. The average trade size in Gap shares was 7,800 shares. Wal-Mart
followed through to the downside. The No. 1 retailer forfeited 2 1/8 to 51 1/2.
Home Depot
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HD |
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PowerRating) declined 2 3/4 to 55 1/4.
The Amex Biotech Index
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$BTK.X |
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PowerRating)
slid 3.2%. Biotechs were led lower by Protein Design Labs
(
PDLI |
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PowerRating), down 10
11/16 to 138 9/16, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
(
VRTX |
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PowerRating) 9 3/4 to 114 and Chiron
(
CHIR |
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PowerRating)
6 3/8 to 44 1/2.
The Amex Internet Index
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$IIX.X |
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PowerRating)
fell 2.6%, led lower by Check Point Software
(
CHKP |
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PowerRating), down 3 7/8 to 124
15/16, Yahoo
(
YHOO |
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PowerRating) 3 3/8 to 129 5/16 and Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
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PowerRating) 4 7/16
to 63 3/8.
For more sector
analysis as well as the day’s action in exchange-traded funds, be sure to check
out Loren Fleckenstein’s Money Flow Outlook, which appears by 7 pm ET after each
market.