These Four Led Today’s Action
The
markets opened later due to September 11 memorial services. Price action gapped up off the bell,
though continued to slide throughout the session, putting the indexes in
negative territory at the close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (
(
$INDU.X |
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PowerRating) closed -0.24% at 8581.17. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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PowerRating)
closed +0.01% at 909.45.
The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
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PowerRating) closed -0.34% at 1315.49.
Leading today’s action were
telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
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PowerRating), +1.98%, utilities
(
$NNA.X |
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PowerRating), +1.64%, gold and
silver
(
$XAU.X |
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PowerRating), +1.36%, and semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
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PowerRating), +1.19%.
The biggest losers on the
session were banks
(
BANK.X |
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PowerRating), -1.10%, and insurance
(
$INSR.X |
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PowerRating),
-0.86%.
Today’s session traded under
the predominant theme of remembering September 11. It’s difficult to see
too much in today’s action, as low volume indicated an absence of regular
players. The day’s higher open may have been due to short covering, as no buyers
stepped up support the prices.
The Semiconductor Index
(
$SOX.X |
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PowerRating), +1.21% at 301.96, closed near the bottom of its daily range. The
Broker/Dealer Index
(
$XBD.X |
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PowerRating), -0.07% at 402.82, closed at the bottom
of its daily range, under its 20-day moving average.
U.S. Treasury Bonds
closed down ’23 at 111 ’22.
In economic news, the Fed’s
beige book gave evidence of a slow and uneven economic growth over the past
few weeks. The report also showed slowed growth from earlier in the year, and a
sluggish manufacturing process.
Volume was light at 828,147,000 on the NYSE,
and 1,396,760,959
on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mostly positive, with NYSE
advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of 1.25, and up volume over
down volume by a 1.29 ratio. Nasdaq declining issues over advancing issues came
in at 1.01, and up volume beat down volume by a 1.71 ratio.
The
VIX was +0.27 at 36.96. The TRIN
was -0.04 at 0.89.
Big movers in the Dow were
SBC Communications
(
SBC |
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PowerRating), +3.89 at 25.85,
United Tech
(
UTX |
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PowerRating), +1.81%, General Motors
(
GM |
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PowerRating), +0.96% at
47.10, Intel Corp.
(
INTC |
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PowerRating), +0.91% at 16.62,
 International Paper
(
IP |
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PowerRating), +0.87% at 36.90, and
Du Pont
(
DU |
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PowerRating), +0.73% at 41.11.
Stocks in the news:
Business news was scarce today
due to the memorial services.
Auto and truck part company
Intermet Corp.
(
INMT |
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Chart |
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PowerRating), -27.04 at 7.04, is reported to be unable to meet
its third-quarter earnings estimate of 15 cents a share.
In the chip business, Nvidia
(
NVDA |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.91% at 11.09, announced that an arbitration panel issued an
interim ruling requiring the company to supply “reasonable requirements” of
chipsets that use Microsoft’s XBox game console.
Conglomerate Tyco
International
(
TYC |
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PowerRating), +11.94 at 17.80, named as its new CFO David
Fitzpatrick of United Technology
(
UTX |
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Chart |
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PowerRating), +1.81% at 62.32.
Metal mining company Alcoa
(
AA |
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Chart |
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PowerRating), +0.46% at 23.87, had its estimates cut by Morgan Stanley, to better
reflect lowered aluminum prices.