Three Players Supporting The Market’s Comeback…

After yesterday’s amazing rally in the three major
indices, traders were looking for a follow-through rally today. In
pre-trading, the futures indicated the opposite would happen and, sure enough, the
markets opened lower.

At the mid point of trade, the markets have made a comeback and are in and out of the positive zone.

Three players that have helped erase losses are Johnson & Johnson
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,
Verizon Communications
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VZ |
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and Dell Computer
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.

One player that weighed heavily on the Dow Jones
Industrial Average

(
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was

Dow Chemical
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. Dow
said third-quarter profit was lower than expected because the cost of oil and
other raw materials rose. Shares of the largest US chemical maker have been
as low as 9%.
Another issue is continued talk of dealing with Iraq
with
Bush and House leaders agreeing on a resolution allowing US action against Iraq.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
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$SPX.X |
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added 1.83, or 0.2%, to 849.56 as of 12:38 p.m. New York time. For today’s Nasdaq and S&P
500 futures support and resistance

click here
for Lewis Borsellino’s comments.

Some of the stronger sectors on the day thus far
are: Semiconductors
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$SOX.X |
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, Biotech
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,
Computer-Hardware
, Energy, Internet Security, Drug
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,
Health, Video Game, Homebuilding, Retail. Weak
sectors include Banking
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$BKX.X |
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, Paper
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$FPP.X |
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,
Lodging
, Gold
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$XAU.X |
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, Cyclical.

Immucor
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beats
by $0.04; updates full yr outlook.
Reports Q1 net of
$0.23 a share, $0.04 better than the First Call consensus, vs yr-ago EPS of
$0.11. Revs rose 24.7% to $23.2 mln. For 2003, co sees EPS of $1.01-$1.06 on
revs of $95-$96.5 mln (First Call consensus $0.92 and $97 mln).

Waste Connections
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is breaking out to hit a six-month high with increasing volume. WCNX has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 91
.

HCA Inc.
(
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is
breaking out above resistance to hit a two-month high with increasing volume.

HCA has a TradingMarkets.com RS3 of 85
.

Ryland Group
(
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is
breaking above the 50% retracement line (39.23; drawn from the Sept 2001 low to
the May 2002 high) with above average volume.

Lennar Corp.
(
LEN |
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is
attempting to break out of a cup-and-handle pattern on the daily chart.

Alcon
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ACL |
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is trading in a
running cup and handle atop the 20-day moving average.
ACL carries a


3
-month
relative strength rank of 96
from TradingMarkets.com.

Nasdaq Market Breadth

Adv: 1495 UpVol: 454172131

Dec: 1654 DnVol: 454706500

Net: -159 Net: -534369

NYSE Market Breadth

Adv: 1519 UpVol: 39418950

Dec: 1586 DnVol: 58250796

Net: -67 Net: -18831846