Encouraging Data

December 28, 2001
Daniel Beighley

The
markets went positive off the opening bell, reached the session’s
highs around 10:30 a.m. ET, then drifted lower into a narrow range where the
three major indexes closed with slight gains. Leadership was in Internet stocks,
as computer hardware and consumer stocks were down marginally.

The slew of economic data
released today seemed to inspire little in the way of market action for traders.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence report came in at 93.7, easily
surpassing analysts’ consensus of 83, and beating out November’s reading of
84.9.

The Labor Department reported that 392,000 claims
for employment insurance were made for December, better that the level of 400
analysts were looking for, and a 4.8% decline from November’s reading.

The Commerce Department said that durable-goods
orders dropped 5% in November, in line with expectations. When the defense
department was factored out, durable-goods rose 2.7%. The Commerce Department
also reported that new home sales totaled 934,000, beating analysts’
expectations of 880,000, and better than November’s reading of 878,000.

Overall
NYSE volume was 880,444,000.
NYSE advancing issues were 2,000,
with up volume at 601,762,000;
declining issues were 1,139,
with down volume at 265,186,000.
Overall Nasdaq volume was 265,186,000.
Nasdaq advancing issues were 2,124,
with up volume at 816,212,000;
declining issues were 1,603
with
down volume at 448,658,000.
The VIX
was up 0.22 to 22.50. The TRIN
was up 0.01 to 0.77.

This holiday week brought the
lowest volume of the year for the market. The Dow managed to close above its
200-day MA for the first time since July, the S&P 500 fell just shy of the
mark, and the Nasdaq remains in a two-week trading range above the mark.

Office equipment specialist Xerox

(
XRX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 6.03% toÂ 10.20,announced that it has received $340
million in the second of three installments from GE Capital in a financing deal
worth $2 billion. Xerox is currently undergoing restructuring which involves
ending its equipment leasing business.

Internet giant Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
rose 2.98% to 18.30 on upbeat comments from Merrill Lynch’s Henry Blodget, who
said fourth quarter revenue for the company should be up 5% from third quarter.
Profits from its paid-search deal with Overture Services
(
OVER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up
6.03% to 2.085, were cited as a significant factor for the increase.

Scientific and technical
company Waters Corporation
(
WAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 2.04% to 40.00, was announced by
Standard and Poor’s to replace FMC Corp. on the S&P 500 next year.

Semiconductor company Micron
Technology
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 1.45% to 31.62, rose after South Korean chip maker
Hynix said it would sell some of its equipment to the company.

Computer networking company Radiant
Systems
(
RADS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 9.44% to 10.90, announced that it expects to beat
fourth quarter earnings estimates as it cut costs and has added new programs.

Encouraging Data

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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