Here’s Why The Texan Disappointed Traders


Yesterday’s bearish sentiment continues today
as the markets again
lose ground in mid morning action. Chip and networking stocks lead the weakness
amid a number of analyst downgrades and disappointment over updates from Texas
Instruments and Xilinx. The same bearish reaction has applied to the rest of the
technology sector and other momentum groups. With the indices trading near-52
week highs and entering the September quarter warnings season, traders have used
the lackluster guidance as an opportunity to lighten positions.

Today’s Market
Indices:

The Dow Jones Industrial
Average

(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
9470.77 – 36.43

The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
1017.43 – 5.74

The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
1845.74 -27.69

NYSE Advancing
Issues
1102

NYSE Declining
Issues
2020

NYSE Trading
Volume
786 mln

NASDAQ Advancing
Issues
952

NASDAQ Declining
Issues
2109

NASDAQ Trading
Volume
1123 mln

Today’s Leading
Sectors:

Pharmaceutical Index
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +1.29%

Airline Index
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+1.23%

S&P Health Care Index
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+.79%

S&P Retail Index
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+.54%

Utility Index
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+.53%.

Today’s Weak
Sectors:

Semiconductor Sector
Index

(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -3.32%

Networking Index
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
-3.03%

Security Broker Dealer
Index

(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -2.37%

Computer Hardware Index
(
$HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -2.24%

Technology Index (CBOE)
(
$TXX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -2.24%

Key Futures:

The 10-year U.S. Note:
+105 at 111 095

The dollar: +.29 at
96.72

Gold: +1.5 at 381.4

Crude Oil +.04 at
29.22

Dow Stocks:

AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+1.36% at 22.30

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +2.32% at 54.01

Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -2.01% at
28.21

Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -.20% at 44.19

Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -1.12% at
28.05

Stocks in the News:

Texas Instruments.
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

predicted that sales will climb at least 6.3% in the third
quarter. Some investors had expected a bigger increase after Intel last week forecast a 17% jump.

Smith Barney reduced its
rating on Nortel Networks
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Juniper Networks
(
JNPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
saying even though capital spending should trend higher in the
second half of the year, “flattish” investments are expected in 2004.

After yesterday’s close,
Xilinx Inc
.
(
XLNX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reaffirmed 2Q guidance, stating that revenues are
expected to be flat or up slightly from the previous quarter’s $313.3 million.

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


Vincent Mao

vincentm@tradingmarkets.com