Quiet But Higher
The
major indexes appeared to be resting for most of its trading range
today, able to close with only slight gains. Oil industry stocks showed some
decent gains while the overall sector action was mixed.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) closed up 0.21%
to 9608, with the S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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closing up 0.14%
at 1,120.12
and the Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closing at 1,828.48, up 0.04%.
Overall, it was a
relatively quiet day for market news. On the economic front, the Labor
Department’s PPI fell 1.6% during October, the biggest drop since 1947. This
number which affects wholesale prices was four times worse than expected.
Economists claim it is too early to speculate if further decreases will ensue,
and the decrease is largely blamed on a weakening global economy. Also released
today, the
University of Michigan’s preliminary November consumer sentiment index rose to
83.5 from 82.7 for the month of October. The survey will be updated later
this month.
Overall
NYSE volume was 1,082,555,000.
NYSE advancing issues were 1,592,
with up volume at 565,142,000;
declining issues were 1,480,
with down volume at 508,505,000.
Overall Nasdaq volume was 1,517,942,000.
Nasdaq advancing issues were 1,731,
with up volume at 860,000,000;
declining issues were 1,812 with
down volume at 639,517,000. The VIX
was down 1.12 to 3.74. The TRIN
was down 0.13 to 0.96. Overall volume was extremely light with all three indexes
making very little progress in either direction. This has been a good week of
gains for the market, though an overbought condition remains on Market
Bias Indicators.
Top
sectors of the day were the Oil
Index
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 2.42%Â
to 518.9 and
the Gold And Silver Sector
Index
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 1.58%Â to
54.72.
Losing
sectors of the day were the Biotechnology
Index
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
down 1.85%
at 555.03 and
the Airline Index
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
down 1.26%
to 69.22.
Entertainment giant Walt
Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
up 0.80% to 18.99, announced
that profits had dropped 78% and that earnings prospects for this quarter look
worse than a half a year ago.
Food
processor H.J.
Heinz Co
(
HNZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 6.42% to 39.96, reducing
its earnings forecasts due to slowing sales in restaurants and other
institutions.
Computer
hardware company Palm
Inc.
(
PALM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose
15.42%
to 2.62, announcing that current CEO
Carl Yankowski
would step down and be replaced by company Chairman Eric Benhamou. The company
also claimed that sales would rebound to levels above this past summer.
Biotechnology
and drug company Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained
5.48%
to 52.74 on news that it would buy back $625 million of its own shares over the
next 12 months.
Communication services company Level
3
(
LVLT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
jumped
a network services agreement with AT&T Wireless
(
AWE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which
dipped 0.53% to 15.09. The
agreement is for bandwidth affecting voice and data for a next-generation
wireless network.
Semiconductor
company Nvidia
(
NVDA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
up 4.84% to 52.16,
said strong sales video games and PCs will improve the outlook for the next two
years. The company earned .26 a share compared to 17 cents a year ago.