The Message In Market’s Open and Close
Stocks were under pressure for most of
Friday but managed to pull into the plus column in the final hour, a fine recap for
a strong week. Late-session buying in big-cap techs helped the Nasdaq pull out
of the red.
This is a characteristic of strong
markets. Weak opens are followed up by up closes in healthy times. Up closes often
incur selling and close down in weak markets.
The Nasdaq Composite ended up 0.2%, the
Dow 0.5%.
Energy costs appeared to give a lift
to inflation-sensitive gold stocks as well as energy stocks. NYMEX crude oil
futures added to gains to close Friday above $1 a barrel. The Philadelphia Gold
and Silver Index
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$XAU.X |
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PowerRating) rose 4.1%, the Amex Oil Index
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$XOI.X |
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2.2%, the Philadelphia Oil Services Index
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$OSX.X |
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PowerRating) 1.2%.
Phillips Petroleum
(
P |
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The company and BP said on Friday they found another 35 million barrels of oil
reserves on Alaska’s North Slope.
Insurance holding company Progressive
(
PGR |
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PowerRating) gained 5.8%. Lands’ End
(
LE |
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magazine, citing anonymous sources, reported that the retailer’s chairman is
considering selling the company.
On the downside, the Amex Securities
Broker/Dealer Index
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$XBD.X |
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PowerRating) pulled back 1.8%, the Goldman Sachs Internet
Index
(
$GIN.X |
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PowerRating) 1.7%, the S&P Chemical Index
(
$CEX.X |
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PowerRating) 1.4%, the
Philadelphia Forest and Paper Products Index
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$FPP.X |
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PowerRating) 1.2%. All are up
for the week.
On the downside, Dell Computer
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DELL |
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PowerRating)
dropped 4.2%. The company reported flat earnings and warned of softer sales
ahead.
Palm
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PowerRating) and Handspring
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HAND |
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PowerRating)
declined 28.8% and 16.3%, respectively, after Palm slashed its Q4 revenue
estimate.
Autodesk
(
ADSK |
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PowerRating) fell 10.7% after
posting Q1 results to beat estimates. However, the maker of computer-aided
design software reduced revenue expectations for its 2002 fiscal year.
In economic news, the U.S. Commerce
Department reported that the trade deficit rose 16% to $31.2 billion in March
from $26.9 billion in February. The bulk of the shortfall expansion came from
higher imports, which rose to $120.6 billion in March from $117.2 billion in
February.