A Positive Sign Going Into Next Week
It was a news reversal day as
the major indexes gapped lower on dismal employment data, then proceeded to
zigzag higher throughout the session. Rumor of Bin Laden’s sons being arrested
in Afghanistan gave the markets a boost in early trading as the S&P futures
rallied 13 points within five minutes. UN talk on Iraq was the day’s main focus,
with no clear progress made towards a resolution. The British have proposed a
March 17 deadline for Saddam Hussein to disarm, or face the consequences of
force. Though closing in negative territory, the Semiconductor Index made
up losses from earlier in the day following Intel’s revenue warning, and closed
at the top of its daily range in a positive sign going into next week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed +0.86%
at 7,740.03. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating)
closed +0.82% at
828.89.
The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
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PowerRating) closed
+0.18% at
1,305.29.
Today’s leaders were airlines
(
$XAL.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+5.54%, biotechnology
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.01%, retail
(
$RLX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.72%, chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.72%.
Today’s laggards were gold and silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-3.29%, oil service
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.22%, and semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.51%.
In economic news, nonfarm payrolls put in a
huge disappointment as it fell 308K vs. expectations of an increase of 20K, the
unemployment rate came in at an expected 5.8%, hourly earnings
rose 0.7% vs. expectations of 0.3%, and the average workweek was at 34.1
vs. expectations of 34.2.
The Ten Year Note
(
TYH3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was +085 at 117 150.
The US dollar
(
DXH3 |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was -0.27 at 98.10.
Volume was below
average, with the NYSE coming in at 1,344,439,000 and the Nasdaq at
1,422,240,000.
Market breadth was mixed, with NYSE advancing issues over declining
issues by a ratio of 1.23, and up volume over down volume by a 1.82 ratio. Nasdaq declining issues over advancing issues came in
at 1.13, and down volume beat up volume by a 1.65 ratio.
The
VIX was -0.69 at 35.65. The TRIN
was -0.55 at 0.67.
Biggest Dow advancers were:
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.75%
at 55.30, Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.69% at 45.80, DuPont
(
DD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.53% at 36.00, Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.90% at 22.52, McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.66% at 12.82, and Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.60% at 15.80.
Stocks in the news:
Chip giant Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.13% at
16.01, announced at its mid-quarter update that it expects revenue to come in
below previous expectations. Much optimism was built into this announcement
after Lehman Brothers’ Dan Niles spoke positively of the company, and the stock
is down sharply in the pre-market.
Also down in the chip sector are Teradyne
(
TER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-2.24% at 10.46, Novellus
(
NVLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.66% at 26.56, Applied
Materials
(
AMAT |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.74% at 11.96. Bucking the trend was National
Semiconductor
(
NSM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.33% at 17.31.
Entertainment company AOL Time Warner
(
AOL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.61% at 11.40, is
reported to be working with the idea of selling the manufacturing arm of its
music division for $1 billion.
Online auctioneer eBay
(
EBAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.31% at 79.90, announced that it
intends to close its Half.com Web site next year as its features have been
integrated into the main site.
Aluminum maker Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.46% at
19.13, sold off after Merrill Lynch lowered its first-quarter estimates on the
company to $0.15 per share vs. previous expectations of $0.20 per share.
Advertising company
Interpublic Group
(
IPG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.62% at 8.45, posted earnings $0.13 below
expectations and guided lower for 2003. Earnings were down 79% from a year ago.
Computer networking company
3Com
(
COMS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -8.66% at 4.11, announced that it expects third-quarter
revenue to come lower than expected, with new estimates for $240-245 million vs.
previous estimates of $270 million
Mobile phone company Nokia
(
NOK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.22%
at 12.95, was upgraded by JP Morgan to “overweight” from “neutral”, though does
not expect the company to give a positive update on March 11.
Aerospace and defense company Boeing Co.
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-1.22% at 25.84, is down in the pre-market after after CEO Phil Condit said it
may acquire European defense company BAE Systems.
Casino company Mandalay Resort Group
(
MBG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+10.08% at 26.10, beat its fourth-quarter earnings by $0.02 with profits of
$0.15 per share.
Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline
(
GSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.02%
at 34.18, received approval from the EU for drug Levitra, a rival of Viagra.
In the biotech sector Gilead Sciences
(
GILD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+7.79% at 36.80, had its estimates raised by JP Morgan which
names the company as
their top pick in the sector.
danielb@tradingmarkets.com