Slow Day Overall, But Plenty Of Action In These Stocks
Stocks were
mixed Friday as yesterday’s blackout —
the biggest in the nation’s history — took a toll on trading. The NYSE and Nasdaq
opened at their regular times but the AMEX delayed its opening. Volume was
less than half normal and probably would have been even lighter if it weren’t
options expiration. Positive economic reports are providing some support to the
market. Both industrial production and capacity utilization came in better than
expected. Alternative fuel source companies caught a bid today: Ballard Power
Systems
(
BLDP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 5%, FuelCell Energy
(
FCEL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 20%, and Plug Power
(
PLUG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 23%. Bonds were higher today, closing early, at 2:00 p.m.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 11.13 at 9321.69. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is +0.16 at 990.67. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is +1.66 at 1702.
The day’s leading sectors are
Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.21%, Home Builders
(
$HGX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.63%, Retail
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.83%, Gold
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.32%. and Networking
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.31%.
Weak today are Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.57%, Biotech
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.30%, Oil
(
$OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.30%,
and Telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.35%.
In economic news, Consumer
Price Index in July rose by 0.2%, as expected. The Core CPI, which
strips out food and energy, rose by 0.2% vs. an expected 0.1% rise. Capacity
Utilization in July rose by 0.3% to 74.5% or higher than expectations of
74.4%. Industrial Production in July rose by 0.5%, the biggest rise since
January. Economists had expected a rise of 0.2%. The Empire State
Manufacturing Survey
came in much worse than expected at a reading of 10.0 vs. expectations of
19.7. Lastly, the release of the University of Michigan Sentiment Survey
will be delayed.
The 10-year U.S. Note
was +130 at 110 23.
The dollar was -0.04 at
96.78.
Gold was -1.40 at
363.80.
Crude Oil was
-0.03 at 30.99
Volume was
562,605,000
on the NYSE, and 698,001,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by 1.22, and down over up
volume by 1.19. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining issues is at 1.00, and
down volume over up volume is at 1.39.
Top Dow stocks were:
Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.25 at
21.40, United Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.48 at 76.48, General
Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.23 at 28.78, Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.29 at 51.05, and Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.46 at 33.54.
Stocks in the news:
Semiconductor maker Analog
Devices
(
ADI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was lower today after reporting third-quarter
results in line with estimates. The company earned 21 cents a share compared to
8 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues jumped 14.2% to $520.40
million, but this was shy of analysts’ estimates of $523.6 million. Looking
ahead, Analog Devices sees third-quarter results coming in at 22 or 23 cents a
share, a penny shy of current consensus estimates. Smith Barney also cut its
rating on the stock from “Outperform” to “In-Line”.
Data storage equipment maker
Advanced Digital Information
(
ADIC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 18% after the company
reported its latest quarterly results. For its third quarter, the company earned
4 cents a share compared to a loss of 3 cents a share during the year-ago
quarter. Revenues surged 42% to a record $108 million.
Infrastructure software
publisher BEA Systems
(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
second-quarter results in line with estimates. Excluding charges, the company
earned 7 cents a share compared to 6 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. BEA
CFO Bill Klein commented, “It’s still a very challenging business environment.”
The world’s largest computer
maker Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported second-quarter earnings of 24 cents a share
yesterday
compared to 19 cents in the year-ago quarter. Revenues jumped 15.6% to $9.78
billion, which beat analysts’ estimates of $9.75 billion. Looking ahead, the
company is expecting a 15% jump in third-quarter revenues and earnings in line
with consensus estimates of 26 cents a share. DELL closed at 32.34, up 0.95.
Trucking company Navistar
International
(
NAV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 0.21 after announcing it returned to profitability.
Navistar, which hasn’t posted a quarterly profit since Oct. 31, 2001, posted
better-than-expected results in its latest quarter. The company earned 25 cents
a share compared to a loss of 27 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.
Excluding items, Navistar earned 26 cents a share or a penny better than
estimates. However the company’s fourth-quarter guidance of between 65 to 75
cents a share is below First Call estimates of $1 a share. NAV closed at 41.84,
up 0.21.
If you have any comments or
questions, please feel free to email me.
vincentm@tradingmarkets.com