The Focus This Week
The
major indexes went negative off the bell, and despite a couple of
late-day rally attempts, closed in the red ahead of key earnings announcements
to be released this week. Utility and REIT stocks provided what little there was
of strength, as airline, biotechnology, and computer technology stocks bore the
worst of the day’s selling.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
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PowerRating) closed down 0.96%Â
to 9,891.42.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed down 0.63%
to 1,138.42.
The Nasdaq [$COMPQ |$COMPQ] closed down 1.57%
to 1,990.73.
With no economic data
released today, the focus was on corporate earnings that will begin to flood the
market this week. Announcements
to watch this week include Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
on Tuesday, and Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on
Thursday.Â
Overall
NYSE volume was 1,243,353,000.
NYSE advancing issues were 1,253,
with up volume at 331,491,000;
declining issues were 1,897,
with down volume at 902,829,000.
Overall Nasdaq volume was 1,772,887,000.
Nasdaq advancing issues were
1,224,
with up volume at 413,852,000;
declining issues were 2,459 with
down volume at 1,345,770,000.
The VIX
was up 1.04 to 25.02. The TRIN
was up 0.26 to 1.79.
Average volume on the session
has brought the Dow and the S&P 500 to its 50-day moving average, as the
Nasdaq was halted at its trend line which started 11/21.
Top
sectors of the day were the Morgan Stanley Health
Provider
Index
(
$RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 1.79% at 316.44
and the Utility Sector
Index
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up
1.13% at 330.90.
Losing
sectors of the day were the Airline
Index
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 3.94% at 88.20,
and the Biotechnology Index
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
down 3.59% to 541.75.
Government sponsored buyer of
home loans Fannie Mae
(
FNM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 1.20% to
78.99 rose after it was announced that their fourth quarter earnings had jumped
69% as lower interest rates boosted mortgage activity.
The Supreme Court has rejected
drug company Eli Lilly
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 0.94%
to 77.12, appeal of a patent ruling that enabled generic drug maker Barr
Laboratories
(
BRL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 0.60% to 78.34, to sell a version of
anti-depressant drug Prozac.
Industrial conglomerate Tyco
International
(
TYC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 4.48% to 52.50, in heavy trading amidst
rumors surrounding its possible acquisition of Honeywell
International
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 4.66% to 31.70, and United
Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),down 2.49% to 62.25%.
Computer giant
International Business Machines
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.88% to 118.05,
announced that they have completed their $129 million acquisition of Cross
World’s Software
(
CWLD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), unch at 4.64.
Defense conglomerate Raytheon
(
RTN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.06% to 31.68, said that it will sell its aircraft
integration systems business to L-3 Communications
(
LLL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.07% to 88.06, in a deal worth $1.13 billon. Raytheon is making
an effort to reduce debt by dropping non-core businesses.
Discount retailer K-Mart
(
KM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), fell another 12.12% to 2.90, on mounting concern over its
debt-rating cut from Standard & Poor’s.
Oil stocks fell today as the
price of crude oil prices hit a four-week low. In particular Schlumberger
(
SLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.17% to 50.82, after bouncing off its 50-day MA.