Here’s Who Got Upgraded

The major indices are in
positive territory today after regaining Friday’s losses. US stocks
advanced on optimism that an accelerating economy will spur corporate profits.
The bulls are pleased with overall corporate and economic news — except for
the labor reports. The bears are saying that jobs do matter and there
are too many bulls and not enough bears. US Treasuries rose for a fourth day
in New York trading on speculation the Federal Reserve will wait until late
2004 before raising its target interest rate amid signs that employers
continue to cut jobs. CS First Boston upgraded
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to “outperform” from
“neutral” and raised its 2004 profit estimate.

Today’s Market Indices:

The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.71% at 9569.09;

The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.76%
at 1028.82

The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.59% at 1879.81

Today’s Leading Sectors:

Networking Index
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.75%

Biotechnology Index
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.78%

Semiconductor Index
(
$GSM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.51%

Computer Boxmaker Index
(
$BMX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.91%

S&P Health Care Index
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.86%.

Today’s Weak Sectors:

S&P Retail Index
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -.73%

Gold and Silver Sector Index
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.32%

Airline Index
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.23%

Economic News:

Economic news is light on the calendar
today. Producer Price Index, Retail Sales, University of Michigan Consumer
Sentiment, Industrial Production, and Capacity Utilization reports are due
later this week and they should be able to shed further light as to the
strength of continued economic recovery.

Key Futures:

The 10-year U.S. Note is +180 at 111 165

The dollar is -0.04 at 97.09

Gold is -1.5 at 377.2

Crude Oil -0.5 at 28.83

Volume is 667,000,000 on the NYSE, and
1,103,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive, with NYSE advancing
issues over declining issues by 2.30 and Nasdaq advancing issues over
declining issues at 1.87.

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

Vincent Mao