Here’s What’s Happening To Consumer Confidence

September 26, 2003
Vincent Mao

Stocks are
lower this midday. The major indices are
off the lows of the session after the final revision of the Michigan Consumer
Sentiment report revealed that consumer confidence fell for the third straight
month. The revised Q2 GDP report showed that the economy grew by a
faster-than-expected pace. Upgrades in Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), 3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Lam
Research
(
LRCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) failed to inspire end-of-quarter buying as the indices are
looking at their third straight day of declines. J.P. Morgan upgraded INTC from
“underweight” to “neutral” based on “robust” PC demand. Bank of America upgraded
3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) citing potential in its LCD film business. Meanwhile CSFB upgraded
chip maker Lam Research
(
LRCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) from “neutral” to “outperform” based on
valuation.

In economic news, Chain
Deflator for Q2 rose by 1% versus expectations of a 0.9% rise. The final
reading of the GDP for Q2 came in at 3.3% versus estimates of 3.1%.
Lastly the revised Michigan Consumer Sentiment for September came in at
87.7 or below expectations of 88.5.

The 10-year U.S. Note
is +205 at 113 240.

The dollar is -0.05 at
94.09.

Gold is -4.90 at 381.00.

Crude Oil -0.09 at
28.20.

Volume is 720,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,000,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative,
with NYSE declining issues over advancing issues by 1.73 and down over up volume
by 2.75; Nasdaq declining issues over advancing issues at 3.14, and down volume
over up volume at 3.35.

Top Dow stocks are:

Stocks in the news:

Specialty drug maker Human
Geome Sciences
(
HGSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by more than 3% after the company
announced disappointing results of its experimental drug, Repifermin, used to
treat venous ulcers. In a Phase IIb trial, the drug failed to meet its goals.

Communications giant
Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by 5% after the company announced that its
camera phones will not be on the market before Christmas. In spite of this, J.P.
Morgan upgraded the stock from “neutral” to “overweight”.

Dow component 3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is higher by 1.36% after Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upgraded the diversified
manufacturing company form “neutral” to “buy.” B of A based the upgrade on the
growth potential in the company’s liquid crystal display film business. They
believe that 3M’s LCD business could account for more than a third of revenues
and earnings by 2007.

Antiviral drug maker
Trimeris
(
TRMS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by more than 13% after UBS Piper Jaffray
downgraded the stock from “market perform” to “under perform” as prescriptions
for the company’s HIV drug Fuzeon have fallen nearly 50% during the last three
months.

Research In Motion
(
RIMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is higher by 7% after the maker of the popular Blackberry wireless devices
reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Excluding litigation charges,
the company earned 10 cents a share or 2 cents better than estimates. Revenues
jumped 71% to $125.7 million.

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

Vincent Mao

vincentm@tradingmarkets.com

Here’s What’s Happening To Consumer Confidence

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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