Better Than Expected

December 3, 2001
Daniel Beighley

Today
the markets turned down off the opening bell and wavered for the
entire session, never breaking into positive territory. Technology experienced
most of the selling pressure though there were pockets of strength across the
sectors.

The markets were
relatively quiet today considering a slew of mixed news events. Violence in the
Middle East escalated with an attack on Palestinian headquarters by Israeli
forces. Oil service companies responded with a rally. For the economy, the
National Association of Purchasing Management reported a contraction in the
manufacturing sector with a reading of 44.5 on its index.

This is better than
expected and up from October’s reading of 39.8 which was a 10-year low. U.S.
consumers also picked up the pace on their spending habits for the month of
October with an increase of 2.9%, making up for the 1.7% decline in September.
There was no change in personal income for October.

The Enron
implosion,
(
ENE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 53.84% to 0.40, still weighs heavy on financial
headlines and has been attributed to the negative sentiment on Wall Street
today. Standard Power & Light, a privately held energy company, announced it
intended to buy the troubled company. Four thousand Enron employees were fired
from the company’s Houston headquarters today.

Overall
NYSE volume was 1,189,688,000.
NYSE advancing issues were 1,272,
with up volume at 503,069,000;
declining issues were 1,875,
with down volume at 679,594,000.
Overall Nasdaq volume was 1,486,360,000.
Nasdaq advancing issues were 1,322,
with up volume at 327,354,000;
declining issues were 2,284 with
down volume at 1,142,697,000.
The VIX
was down 0.14 to 26.00. The TRIN
was down 0.25Â to 0.91.

Light volume on the session is a good sign from the perspective that bull
markets experience their heavy volume days when the price action moves up. The
indexes appear to be holding back at this juncture, though, as cited in This
Week’s Battle Plan, a big move up or down may be imminent from volatility’s
behavior.

Biotechnology
company Cephalon Inc
(
CEPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
down 3.59% to 70.129 announced
it would acquire French drug maker Lafon for $450 million in cash.Â

Brokerage firm
Â Morgan Stanley
(
MWD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
down 5.23% to 52.60
fell after Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Strauss downgraded the stock to
“Market Perform” from “Market Outperform.”

Auto maker Ford Motor
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell 6.23% to 17.76 on news that
it expects to warn that it will miss its fourth quarter earnings expectations.Â Â

Â

Better Than Expected

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

Quick Links

Company Info

Contact

Company Resources