4 1/2 year highs…
Stocks were mixed Wednesday, with the S&P making a new 4 1/2 year high,
but the tech-laden Nasdaq closing down slightly.
The Russell 2000 closed just short of an historic high. Utilities were strong on
merger talks.
The trade deficit hit an all-time high in October at $68.89 billion vs 66.1
billion in September. Import prices fell 1.7%; export prices fell 0.9%.
The dollar saw the largest single-day drop vs. the yen in over three years.
Ken Tower, Chief Market Strategist for Cybertrader Inc./Charles
Schwab, said: "There are some very positive things going on in the markets
today besides the move to new highs on the S&P and the Dow getting close to
11,000–volatility is falling, and I think that is a positive sign. One concern
is that technology is not playing a leadership role right here; it’s not a very
strong day for semiconductors or tech stocks in general."
Amgen
(
AMGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire
Abgenix
(
ABGX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $22.50/share.
General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reaffirmed its
2006 guidance of $1.92 – $2.02 and 10% sees revenues of $165 billion. GE’s
PowerRating
is 6.
Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
received an large order from Qantas for 115 jetliners. Boeing beat out
competitor Airbus. BA‘s
PowerRating
is 6.
Bear Stearns cut
Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to "peer perform." Bank of America cut its rating to neutral from
buy. AAPL’s
PowerRating is 2.
FPL Group
(
FPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is in advanced talks to acquire Constellation Energy
(
CEG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
The New York Times reported.
Strong sectors were: Airlines
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.46%
Oil Services
(
OSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.43% Natural Gas
(
XNG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.38%
Weak sectors were:
Gold
(
XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.48% Biotech
(
BTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.06% Semis
(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.41%
|
|
+59.79 | 10,883.51 |
| -2.41 | 2262.59 | |
| +5.31 | 1272.74 |
More stocks on the move:
Nordson
(
NDSN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.14. NDSN’s
PowerRating is 6.
Baidu.com
(
BIDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said that co-underwriters Goldman Sachs and CSFB
will release 3 million shares from lock-up restrictions
Winnebago
(
WGO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in-line at $0.42. WGO’s
PowerRating
is 4.
Plato Learning
(
TUTR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny. The company said it
expects to be profitable in fiscal 2006.
ADC Telecom
(
ADCT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a lower Q4 profit, but on higher revenues.
Brice Wightman