One For The Bulls

• October 10, 2001
• Vincent Mao

After heading slightly lower in the
morning, major market indices staged an intraday reversal that took the markets decisively higher by the close. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU |
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PowerRating) shot up 188.42 points (or 2.08%) to
close at 9240.86. The broader S&P 500 was up 24.24 points or 2.29% to
close at 1080.99. The Nasdaq Composite
(
$COMPQ |
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PowerRating), helped by the
semiconductors and networking stocks showed the greatest sign of strength as it
was up 56.07 points or 3.57%. Market breadth was very positive today. On the
NYSE, advancers beat decliners 22 to 8 on volume of over 1.3 billion shares.
And on the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners 23 to 12 on volume of 1.8 billion
shares.

Green signs were all across the board today, but strongest sectors
included:

• Semiconductors
  (
  $SOX |
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  PowerRating) — up 6.74% for the day. Xilinx
  
  (
  XLNX |
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  PowerRating) led the group higher as it shot up 10.75%. National Semiconductor
  
  (
  NSM |
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  also had a great day as it went up 8.54%.
  
• Biotechs
  (
  $BTK |
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  PowerRating) up 4.29% for the day. Cephalon
  
  (
  CEPH |
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  went up 5.24%.
  
• Networking:
  (
  GIP |
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  PowerRating) up 4.79% for the day. Corning
  
  (
  GLW |
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  PowerRating) led
  the way as it was up over 7% for the day.

Weakest sector included:

• Metals
  (
  $XAU |
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  PowerRating) — Down 3% for the day.

Stocks rallied today as worries about corporate earnings were somewhat
eased. A number of positive earnings reports and pre-announcements
(
HDI |
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(
DL |
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(
PEP |
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(
WLL |
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(
LRCX |
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gain the upper hand. In addition, the report of a possible stimulus package for
low-income taxpayers by Christmas also helped today’s rally.

After the close, Internet bellwether Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) announced that
earnings of .01, in line with analysts’ estimates.