3 Percent Gain For Nasdaq — Here’s What Happened
It was a
trend day up with the indices rallying strongly Thursday.
Tech led the way in the oversold bounce, with the Nasdaq gaining 57 points, or
3%. Semiconductors, including Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on good news from
Micron Technology and Lattice Semiconductor; both companies
beat consensus estimates yesterday after the close. The Dow came off 5 losing
sessions with very strong breadth. Crude oil prices dropped — its largest
decline in 4 months — accounting for additional optimism on the Street. Kuwait
said that OPEC may postpone a production cut scheduled for next month.
The oil service index is down 5.7% this week, as
investors who rushed to oil stocks earlier looked to lock in profit. Nationwide,
average gasoline prices rose for a third day in a row to $1.74 a gallon despite
a pullback in crude oil prices. Oil traders blame a cold winter, low
inventories, Strategic Petroleum Reserve buildup and a rapid growth in China,
especially in petroleum products for the recent spike in prices. The FBI warned
of possible terror threats to oil facilities and pipelines for the state of
Texas.
The US economy grew at an
annual rate of 4.1%; initial claims rose 1,000 to 339,000 for the week ended
March 20. The US attorney’s office in Pennsylvania is investigating Eli
Lilly’s
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) marketing of certain drugs. Activision
(
ATVI |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating)
rose after it boosted its fourth-quarter outlook on strength in its publishing
and distribution divisions. The company now expects earnings of 50 cents with
revenue at $940 million.
Stock supply is increasing, with the most IPOs filed this month since 9/2000.
After the close, Cognos
(
COGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04, ex-items and beat on revenues; the stock traded up
$1.30 at press time, after hours. Intel and Alcatel entered into a
pact for a wireless technology called WiMax. Myogen’s
(
MYOG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Phase
III preliminary results for enoximone capsules did not reach statistical
significance; the stock traded down after hours.
Friday morning before the open,
look for earnings from Echostar
(
DISH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), where analysts are looking
for 0.09.
| Dow | +170.59 |
10218.82 |
| S&P 500 |
+17.95 |
1109.28 |
| Nasdaq | +57.69 |
1967.17 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +5.10%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +4.46%,
Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +4.92%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 3.91%.
Weak today was Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.04%.
Economic news releases today
included initial claims that rose to 339,000, with GDP at the 4.1% consensus.
Existing home sales also met the consensus of 6.12 million units.
10-year Notes were -045
at 116 010.
The dollar
was -0.03 at 88.90.
Gold was -0.60 at
416.20.
Crude Oil was down 1.43
at 35.58.
Volume was
1,481,325,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,936,780,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2366 | Up Vol 1201 |
| Declining | 892 | Down Vol 195 |
| Ratio | 2.65 |
6.15 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2311 | Up Vol 1775 |
| Declining | 811 | Down Vol 107 |
| Ratio | 2.85 |
16.5 |
Stocks in the news:
AG Edwards’
(
AGE |
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News |
PowerRating)
profits rose, as did its stock, up almost 6%.
Apple Computer
(
APPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said the
worldwide release of its iPod mini would be delayed to July from strong demand
in the U.S.
Merix
(
MERX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
third-quarter earnings of $3.2 million on revenue of $44.1 million. The company
gave a disappointed fourth-quarter numbers with pro-forma earnings to be about
12 cents a share.
NEC Electronics
announced a partnership with Transmeta
(
TMTA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to license its
low-power microprocessor technology.
Avon Products
(
AVP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after
raising its outlook to 59 cents a share due to strength in operations. It also
expects full year earnings to reach $3.19 per share.