10% One-Day Gainer!
Stocks were higher Monday — with a late-day rally sending the Dow to fresh
19-month highs —
as investors brushed off a heightened terror alert.
Cyclicals dominated the new high list,
including US Steel
(
X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Peabody Energy
(
BTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), as money rotated out of
technology.
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will take a $1.65
billion charge on labor costs for Visteon
(
VC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) as a way to keep the
parts supplier competitive while lowering its own costs. Ford also gave a bright
outlook on strong sales of its new F-150 pickup. It is expected to earn at least
$1.05 a share for 2003; Ford stock gained 10% today. General Motors
gained 4% to 52.41, another new high. Natural gas was down almost 10% on warmer
weather in the East.
A report from the NYSE indicated that it may demand
ex-chairman Dick Grasso give up a big portion of the $140 million he
received. Drug-maker Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has agreed to acquire biotech firm
Esperion
(
ESPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Therapeutics for $1.3 billion. Esperion is involved
in cholesterol treatments.
In other news, a
6.5 magnitude earthquake hit the central California coast near San Simeon,
mid-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
| Dow | +59.78 |
10338 |
| S&P 500 | +4.22 | 1092.88 |
| Nasdaq | +4.78 | 1955.80 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Brokers
(
XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.43%.Chemicals [CEX.X|CEX.X]
+2.64%, Health Providers
(
RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.11%, and Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.10%.
Weak today were Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.44%, Health Products
(
RXP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.45%.
No Economic news
releases today.
Dollar was -0.19 at
87.92.
Gold was +0.72 at
409.55.
Crude Oil was -1.17 at
31.87.
Volume was
1,245,358,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,267,248,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1977 | Up Vol 751 |
| Declining | 1292 | Down Vol 395 |
| Ratio | 1.53 | 1.90 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1585 | Up Vol 670 |
| Declining | 1598 | Down Vol 537 |
| Ratio | 1.00 | 1.24 |
Stocks in the news:
After the close,
Abgenix
(
ABGX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced the departure
of its CFO. Research In Motion
(
RIMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was halted ahead of its earnings report,
scheduled for this afternoon.
Conagra
(
CAG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on earnings news of
$3.9 billion in sales and net income of $270.1 million. It attributed the strong
income to lower selling and general expenses.
First Sentinel
(
FSLA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) agreed to be
acquired by Provident Financial Services
(
PFS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $642 million,
creating New Jersey’s eighth-largest bank. FSLA is up 15% on the news.
JP Morgan initiated coverage on XM Satellite
Radio
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) at “overweight”. JPM said XM has the ability to introduce
new and lower-priced radios before its competitor Sirius
(
SIRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
which should give XM a competitive advantage.
Antigenics
(
AGEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 5% after
receiving FDA approval to proceed with Phase III trials of its treatment for
kidney cancer.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com