$1 Billion Stock Buyback Just Announced

September 19, 2003
Brice Wightman

Stocks were
lower quadruple-witching Friday.Â After rising for
the last five out of six weeks, both the Dow and S&P are running into
resistance. In addition, there is negative divergence on their weekly charts. No
economic releases today. Hurricane Isabel slammed into the East Coast yesterday,
leaving 14 people dead and 4.5 million homes and businesses without power. The
Hurricane’s damage is estimated to be near $1 billion or just a quarter of
previous estimates. Both airline
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issues are down nearly 1%.

No economic
reports today.

The 10-year U.S. Note
is +060 at 112 175.

The dollar was -1.07 at
94.88.

Gold was +6.30 at 382.10.

Crude Oil was -0.31 at
27.07.

Volume was
1,462,024,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,877,263,0000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was mixed,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by 1.22, and down over up
volume by 1.16; Nasdaq advancing issues over declining issues at 1.06, and down
volume over up volume at 1.12.

Top Dow stocks were:

Stocks in the news:

After the close, Hewlett Packard
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authorized an additional $1 billion to repurchase its shares.

Logistics services provider
Expeditors
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that its third-quarter results will be short of expectations. Due to lower
margins and reduced tonnage from Asia, the company now sees third-quarter
results between 28 to 30 cents a share vs. current consensus estimates of 33
cents a share.

Internet marketing services
provider Findwhat.com [FWHT|FWHT|] plummeted 25%
after the company announced that it is renegotiating the terms of its recent
acquisition, Espotting Media. Findwhat has retracted its previous statements
regarding Espotting’s historical and projected performance. However, the company
did reaffirm its third-quarter and full-year targets of 11 cents a share and 48
cents a share, respectively.

Nike
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PowerRating) gained 7.5% after reporting its first-quarter results. Yesterday, the athletic
footwear and apparel maker reported earnings of 98 cents a share compared to a
loss of 18 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues came in at a record
$3 billion.

Software maker Red Hat
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rallied 17% after the company posted a second-quarter profit
compared to year-ago loss. The leading distributor of the Linux operating system
earned 2 cents a share compared to a loss of a penny a share during the year-ago
quarter. Analysts were expecting a penny a share. Revenues jumped 36% to $28.8
million.

If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.

Brice
Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com

$1 Billion Stock Buyback Just Announced

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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