Losing Streak Snapped

A downgrade of Intel
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and Advanced Micro Devices
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by a
Bank of America analyst cast a shadow on an already weakened technology sector,
and that sent the Nasdaq sharply lower at the open Wednesday. By the close,
however, bargain hunters had stepped in to pick-up some of the recently pummeled
techs, and that helped the Nasdaq zig-zag back to finish with a 1.1% gain. 

The S&P 500 managed to gain 0.2% while the Dow eased 0.4%, but all eyes
continue to focus on the Nasdaq, whose gain helped snap a three-day losing
streak. At its current level, the Nasdaq is stuck for the third straight day
beneath both its 50- and 200-day moving averages.

Volume for the day increased by about 2% from Tuesday’s levels, with 1.06 billion
shares trading on the NYSE and 1.64 billion shares trading on the Nasdaq.

"I think people are looking for a bottom in this recent selloff, and the
sense I get is that once we get that bottom and it starts to improve, then we’ll
get a pretty fierce snapback rally," said Brian Conroy, Head of Listed
Trading, J.P. Morgan.

"Whether that continues or not going into earnings, I’m not sure, but it
feels like there are people ready to put money to work, but they’re a little
hesitant because of the Euro, because of what oil is doing, and because of the
pre-announcement season. We’ve had quite a big move down in the last week and a
half, and it feels to me like we’re probably getting close to a near-term bottom
here," he added.

According to preliminary numbers, the Nasdaq gained 44.36 to 3893.87, the Dow
slipped 51.05 to 11,182.18, and the S&P 500 added 2.92 to 1484.91.

Top-performing sectors were biotechnology
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, up 4.0%, airlines
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, up 2.3%, transportation
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, up 2.0%, and
semiconductors
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, up 1.8%.

On the weaker side were banks
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, down 1.0%, integrated oils
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,
down 1.3%, and oil services
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, down 2.3%.

Semiconductors that led the SOX higher included Rambus
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, up 7
11/16 to 84 1/2, Xilinx
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, up 3 1/4 to 84 5/16, Micron
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, up 2
3/4 to 66 1/16, and Applied Materials
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, up 2 5/16 to 74.

Intel
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, as mentioned, fell victim to an analyst downgrade and fell
3 11/16 or 5.6% to 61 1/4 while Advanced Micro Devices
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sank 2 to 28
1/2.

One recent tech screamer that pulled back sharply in recent days was Ciena
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.
Ciena had a nice bounce off a support level Wednesday and posted a gain of 14
27/32 to 193 27/32.

In the Dow, joining Intel as the worst performers were Hewlett Packard
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and Philip Morris
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, which each gained more than 5%. Dow winners were
AT&T
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, up 3.6%, IBM
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, up 1.8%, and Caterpillar
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, up
1.8%.

Looking to economic news due out Thursday, the August Producer Price Index and the August retail
sales will be released at 8:30 AM ET. Consensus estimates look for a 0.1% increase in the PPI,
a 0.2% in the PPI core rate, and a 0.3% increase in retail sales.