Follow-Through Thursday?
Stocks are looking at a positive open Thursday following Wednesday’s
late-session charge that took the Nasdaq up 2.6% for the day. In economic news,
jobless claims fell by 11,000 to 352,000 but still remain in a multi-week
uptrend.
Analysts have commented that the fact that new jobless numbers are remaining
relatively steady suggests that a soft-landing scenario remains intact.
The Nasdaq futures are up 49 points, and the Dow futures are up 26 points.
The S&Ps look to open up 6 points while the yield on the 10-year Treasury
is 5.17%.
Thursday Movers
In the optical sphere, Ciena
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share which topped First Call/Thomson Financial estimates of 15 cents per share.
Ciena closed Wednesday at 76 13/16 and is currently trading up to 83 3/4 in
pre-market activity.
Also strong in the optical space is JDS Uniphase
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up to 44 following a Wednesday close of 41 1/4.
Following its 13% Wednesday gain, shares of Applied Materials
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again Thursday. AMAT closed Wednesday at 46 13/16 and is currently trsading up
to 47 5/8 in pre-market activity.
Also bouncing nicely is Cisco competitor Juniper Networks
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is currently trading up to 94 1/4 following a Wednesday close of 89 3/8. Juniper
rose 10 1/2 to 89 3/8 on Wednesday.
From the “why now?” department, Prudential downgraded Amazon
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PowerRating) to a
sell and that, ironically, is having little effect on the stock. It’s already
been sold and sold for the past year and is actually trading up a tad to 13 3/8
in pre-market activity. Amazon peaked way back in Dec. 1999 at 113 just after
Jeff Bezos was named Time Magazine Man of the Year, so again, why now?