A Reason To Buy?

  • February 25, 2002
  • Daniel Beighley

All three major indexes gapped
up this morning and trended higher throughout the day to post solid gains for
the session. The semiconductors led technology issues for the biggest gains on
the day, with gold and silver bringing up the rear in negative territory.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed up
1.78%  to
10,145.71. The S&P 500
(
$SPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed up
1.76% to
1,109.07.
The Nasdaq [$COMPQ |$COMPQ] closed up
2.63% to
1,769.87.

Wall Street’s buying mode was
accompanied by positive earnings news and better than expected data on house
sales. The housing starts number came in at over 6 million for January,
surpassing December’s number of 5.2 million. This was the largest month to month
increase ever, and the first time the number reached over 6 million. Economists
were looking for a number of 5.2. 


Overall NYSE volume was
1,326,698,000. NYSE
advancing issues were
1,924, with up volume at
956,666,000; declining issues were
1,180, with down volume at
355,291,000. Overall Nasdaq volume was
1,644,028,000. Nasdaq advancing issues were
1,937, with up
volume at
1,288,393,000; declining issues were
1,662
with down volume at
330,483,000. The
VIX was down 1.58 to 23.31. The TRIN
was down 0.69 to 0.60.

Below average volume on the
session saw the Dow push north of its 200-day moving average, the S&P 500 close
above its 20-day moving average, and the Nasdaq close well short of its major
moving averages. The
Broker/Dealer Index
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 2.25%, still remains well below its
major moving averages.


Top sectors of the day were the Semiconductor Index

(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 5.84% at 538.72 and the

GSTI Software Index
(
$GSO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up
3.89% at 158.27.


Losing sectors of the day were the
Gold and Silver Index
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down
1.77%
at 63.53, and the
Japan Index
(
$JPN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down
0.64% to 108.82.

Communications chip maker Qualcomm (QCOMM),
up 3.19 to 35.89, announced that its earnings will meet forecasts citing an
increase in demand for certain semiconductors in phones.

Software company Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS),
up 0.97 to 14.47,  was upgraded by UBS Warburg to Strong Buy from Hold
under the belief that concerns of a weak PC industry and competition from
Microsoft are overdone.

Chip maker Vitesse Semiconductor (VTSS),
up 0.22 to 7.64, was able to shake off negative news that Moody’s will put the
stock’s rating under review.

Auto maker General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 2.44 to 55.55, said that it
believes it will surpass its earnings target for the first quarter and most
likely the rest of the year due to better than expected sales. 

Photography giant Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 1.24 to 31.60, announced
that it believes it will meet its first quarter expectations and is comfortable
with earnings forecasts of $2.00 to $2.60 for the year.

 

 

 

 

 

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