Market Rallies On This Big News
Stocks were
higher Tuesday.
After an early gap-up and then selloff, rumors of the capture or death of Saddam
Hussein’s sons started a rally. CENTCOM later confirmed that both Uday and Qusay
were killed in a firefight. Lehman
Brother upgraded the semiconductor capital equipment group from “neutral” to
“positive.” The major indices also got a boost from continuing healthy
corporate profit reports. A number of companies including Corning
(
GLW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Centex
(
CTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), United Parcel Service
(
UPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Radio Shack
(
RSH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
guided higher. Bonds were slightly higher, closing in a hammer.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rallied 61.62 to 9,158.31. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gained 9.31 to 988.11. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 24.61 to 1706.02.
The day’s leading sectors were
Networking
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +8.29%, Semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+12.22%, Telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +14.72%, and Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.25%.
Weak today were Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.65%, Healthcare
(
$HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.06%,
Health Providers
(
$RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.18%, and Drugs
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.19%.
No economic news today or
tomorrow. Weekly jobless claims come in on Thursday.
The 10-year U.S. Note
was +085 at 113 120.
The dollar was +0.25 at
96.67.
Gold was -1.40 at 351.
Crude Oil was -1.34 at
29.49
Volume was
1,440,267,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,739,410,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a 1.21, and up volume over
down volume by 2.85. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining issues at 1.64, and
up volume over down volume at 3.37.
Top Dow stock(s) were:
AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.65 at 19.82,
United Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.25% at 76.00, Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.68
at 24.87, SBC
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.64 at 23.77 and Walt Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.41 at 20.82.
Stocks in the news:
After the close, Amgen
(
AMGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat estimates by .03 and raised its guidance; Amazon.com
(
AMZN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a narrower quarterly loss and higher revenue from a year ago, and also
upped their guidance; Broadcom
(
BRCM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by .01; SEBL came in
in-line at .02 (vs. .06 a year ago), Wellpoint
(
WLP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny
and guided up; Boston Scientific
(
BSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported in-line; and
Ryland
(
RYL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said they earned 2.03 vs a 1.40 estimate.
Programmable chip maker,
Altera Corp.
(
ALTR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a 50%
increase in quarterly profits. The company earned 9 cents a share compared to 6
cents a share a during the year ago period. Altera’s results were in line with
analysts’ estimates. ALTR closed down .52 at 17.93.
Ashland
(
ASH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported third-quarter results below expectations. The
company earned $1.01 a share compared to $0.93 a share during the year-ago
period. Ashland’s results were 7 cents shy of analysts’ estimates. The
diversified construction and chemical company cited higher energy costs,
unfavorable weather conditions, and a weak economy. ASH closed at 31.03, up .48.
Travel and real estate services
provider Cendant
(
CD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported second-quarter results that topped expectations. The company reported earnings
including charges of 37 cents a share compared to just a penny in the year-ago
period. Analysts had expected the company to earn 35 cents a share. CD gained
.34 to 17.99.
Dow component Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) hit a 52-week low after Standard & Poor’s
lowered the imaging company’s long-term credit rating from BBB+ to BBB. S&P
based the lowered credit rating on the belief that Kodak’s recent purchase of
PracticeWorks
(
PRWK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will hurt their own business.EK closed down .81 at
24.59.
Novellus Systems
(
NVLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gained after the company reported second-quarter results in line with
analysts’ estimates. The company reported income of 5 cents a share compared to
8 cents a share during the year-ago period. Looking ahead, Novellus Chaiman and
CEO Richard S. Hill said, “We are cautiously optimistic that bookings will
increase in the third quarter as we are seeing a rebound in the PC industry and
parts of the telecommunications industry.” Lehman Brothers also upgraded the
stock from “equal weight” to “over weight.” NVLS was up 1.76 at 36.31.
Tool maker Stanley Works
(
SWK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported second-quarter results
that missed analysts’ estimates. The company reported results of 14 cents a
share compared to 72 cents during the year-ago period. This was well below
consensus estimates of 51 cents a share. Looking ahead, the company is expecting
third-quarter results to be between 39 to 51 cents a share or below estimates of
60 to 60 cents a share. SWK fell .33 to 28.87.
If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.
vincentm@tradingmarkets.com