Quiet And Orderly
Stocks ended Monday roughly flat in quiet and orderly trade that saw stocks
hang on to most of last week’s bounce-driven gains off of Wednesday’s lows. The
Dow gained 0.4%, the Nasdaq lost 0.4%, and the S&P 500 eased by just a
point.
Volume fell by 23% on the Nasdaq from Friday’s levels, as 1.67 billion
shares changed hands, while NYSE volume fell by 12%, with 1.02 billion shares
trading.
Analysts commented that a more vicious selloff last week would have more
clearly indicated a market bottom, but with most of the mutual fund selling out
of the way and earnings continuing to look strong, many are starting to see
positive prospects for stocks for the remainder of the year.
“While we continue to think the major indices will close positive for
the year, we believe the bulk of that upside will be enjoyed the last seven to
eight weeks of trading as the market gets used to feeling good about itself
again at current levels,” said Brian Belski, Fundamental Market Analyst,
U.S. Bancorp/Piper Jaffray.
“It’s interesting to note that as the selling pressure was peaking last
week, 52 out of 79 stocks within the S&P 500 Technology Sector were hitting
either 12-month or five year P/E lows based on their consensus estimated P/Es
for the next fiscal year’s earnings,” he added.
According to preliminary numbers, the Dow added 45.13 to 10,271.72, the
Nasdaq slipped 14.39 to 3468.72, and the S&P 500 lost a point to 1395.77.
Top sectors were biotech
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 5.6%, semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 3.2%, and pharmeceuticals
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 2.9%.
On the weak side were transportation
(
$TRX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.4%,
broker/dealers
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 2.7%, and oil services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
down 3.4%.
Tops on the SOX
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) were Teradyne
(
TER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Novellus
(
NVLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), with each up 8%.
In the fiber optic realm, Corning
(
GLW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) earned 35 cents per share for the
third quarter, topping analyst estimates by a penny. That was not enough to
excite traders, though, as the stock fell 4 1/2 to 101 7/16.
In the storage arena, Brocade
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), a maker of storage switching
solutions, soared 14 3/16 to an all-time high 266 5/8 on heavier-than-average
volume.
Top Dow stocks were Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 8%, SBC Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
up 6%, and Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 5%. Dow losers were General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), with each down more than 5%.
Upcoming economic news due out this week includes September’s existing home
sales on Wednesday and third quarter GDP on Friday. Estimates look for 5.05
million existing home sales and for a GDP number easing down to 3.5% from the
second quarter’s blistering 5.6% pace.