Standing Strong

  • October 22, 2001
  • Daniel Beighley

The
markets trended higher today under the leadership of the technology
sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
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9,377.03. The S&P 500
(
SPX.X |
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Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ.X |
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This week, 160 companies in the
S&P 500 are expected to report their worst earnings in a decade, with
average profit loses over 22% from this time last year. Concurrently the U.S.
index of leading economic indicators fell 0.5% for September, a .01% drop from
August, and the worst since January 1996. Today two postal workers died in
Washington D.C. with symptoms similar to anthrax, though a connection cannot be
made at this time. The markets stood strong against this news with another
healthy rally.

NYSE
advancing issues were 1,836, with up-volume at 765,895,488; declining issues
were 1,267, with down-volume at 323,876,800. Nasdaq advancing issues were 2,090,
with up-volume at 1,001,351,168; declining issues were 1,484 with down- volume
at 446,072,704. The VIX
was down 2.72  to 33.12. The TRIN
was down 0.50 to  to 0.60. The markets have made nice broad-based gains for
the day with major indexes just a shout away from their 50-day moving averages
and advancing volume dominating declining volume by a factor of 2:1.


Top
sectors of the day were the Semiconductor Sector Index
(
SOX.X |
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446.85 and the Biotechnology Index
(
BTK.X |
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Losing
sectors of the day were the Gold And Silver Sector Index
(
XAU |
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51.55 and the Dow Jones Utilities Index
(
$UTIL |
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PowerRating) down 1.13% at 306.7.

3M
(
COMS |
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up 2.69% at 4.20. The company reported a 21 % decline in third quarter
earnings, with earnings of 0.99 cents a share compared to $1.25 a year ago and
below most estimates of $1.09 a share. 3M earnings are widely considered a
bellwether for the U.S. manufacturing sector due to its broad range of products.

Conoco
(
COC |
Quote |
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PowerRating) up 2.72% at 25.65. The company posted a 48% fall in third
quarter earnings. As the fourth-largest U.S. oil company. losses were attributed
to weaker global prices for crude oil.

Esafetyworld
(
SFTY |
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PowerRating)
down 21.70% at  2.49. News of the company developing a product that
will make mail safe from contamination by anthrax and other deadly elements
after opening sent the stock reeling last Friday, but pulled back today.

EMC
Corp
(
EMC |
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up 5.91% at 12.19 and Dell Computer
(
DELL |
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24.54 announced they would align forces to market on of EMC’s storage
lines.

Rambus

(
RMBS |
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PowerRating)
up 7.00% at 9.63. One of the big movers of the day rallied ahead of its
earnings announcement to come after the close today.