Here’s What Bonds Did After The Price Data Was Released

August 14, 2003
Vincent Mao

Stocks are
higher this midday.Â The major indices
reversed early morning losses after the latest economic reports continued to
show stabilization in the job market and cooled off fears of deflation. For the
fourth consecutive week, initial jobless claims came in under the critical 400K
level. Meanwhile, its four-week moving average remained under 400K for the
second week. Producer prices at the core rate came in higher than expected, its
biggest rise since March. The Dow is near the top of its two-month trading range
and was within 27 points from its July 31 high. Continuing to show relative
out-performance today, the Nasdaq composite is challenging its key 20-day moving
average. The tech-heavy index has remained under this key short-term average for
nearly two weeks. Bonds are down around 2 full points, thus sending rates back
to near one-year highs.Â

In economic news, Weekly
Jobless Claims rose by 2000 to 398K. Economist had expected a drop to 393K.
The less volatile four-week moving average fell to 394,250 from 398,500.
This was the lowest reading since mid-February. Producer prices in July
rose 0.1% as expected. However, the core rate rose by 0.2% vs. estimates of a
rise of 0.1%. The Trade Balance in June came in at -$39.5B vs. estimates
of -$42B.Â

The 10-year U.S. Note
is -235 at 109 250.

The dollar is +0.61 at
96.96.

Gold is +3.10 at 367.00.

Crude Oil -0.14 at
30.64.

Volume is 634,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 750,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by 1.31, and up over down
volume by 1.52. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining issues at 1.33, and up
volume over down volume at 2.23.

Top Dow stocks are:

Stocks in the news:

Women’s apparel retailer Ann
Taylor
(
ANN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is higher by 2.7% after the company reported second-quarter
results, in line with analysts’ estimates. In its latest quarter, the company
earned 45 cents a share, compared to 39 cents a share in the year-ago period.
Ann Taylor also raised its third-quarter forecast from between 39 to 41 cents a
share to 44 or 45 cents a share.Â

Graphics chip maker ATI
Technologies
(
ATYT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is higher by 6.7% after the company disclosed an
agreement with Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to develop custom, leading edge graphics
technologies for next-generation XBOX consoles. According to Robbie Bach, senior
vice president of Microsoft’s Home and Entertainment Division Microsoft selected
ATI after determining that “ATI’s technical vision fits perfectly with the
future direction of XBOX.” Previously, NVIDIA
(
NVDA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) supplied Microsoft
with XBOX’s graphic technologies.

Chip maker Texas Instruments

(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is higher by 3.2% after Soundview upgraded the stock from
“neutral” to “outperform”. Soundview upped its rating on the world’s biggest
maker of chips in mobile phones as they believe that the industry is in a mild
to gradual recovery and that TI would be the best “proxy” for the industry.Â

The world’s largest fastfood
chain McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by 1.75% after Wachovia Securities
downgraded the stock from “outperform” to “market perform”. Wachovia based the
downgrade on valuation. The firm also believes that sales will begin to slow as
McDonalds is winding down its Big Mac and French fries promotions.Â

Retailer Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is lower by 2.3% after the company reported second-quarter results that missed
analysts’ estimates by a penny. Target earned 39 cents a share compared to 38
cents in the year-ago quarter. Looking ahead, the company’s third-quarter
forecast is “more conservative” than analysts’ estimates of 34 cents a share. Â

If you have any comments or
questions, please feel free to email me.

Vincent Mao

vincentm@tradingmarkets.com

Here’s What Bonds Did After The Price Data Was Released

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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