Two Reasons For Rise In Treasuries


U.S. Treasuries are on the rise
for a third day in four. Two reasons for
this are declining stocks and speculation the U.S. will invade Iraq. Both the
Dec.10-year note

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and the Dec. 30-year bond
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are
trading higher today.

Today is the FOMC meeting and the consensus is that the policy makers leave the
benchmark interest-rate target unchanged, traders said. A Fed announcement is
due at 2:15 p.m. Washington time. The Treasuries could get a boost if the
Federal Reserve says weakness is still the major risk to the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
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and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
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fell for the fifth day in
six after more worries on corporate earnings. Both Weyerhaeuser
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the third-biggest wood-products company and Maytag
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the
third-largest household appliance maker said that earnings will lag forecasts.

Other factors pressuring the markets are continued concerns over a possible U.S.
attack of Iraq. Nov.

crude-oil futures

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rose after U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair
demanded United Nations action against Iraq, saying the Persian Gulf oil
producer has plans to deploy weapons of mass destruction.

Separately, Xerox
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disclosed that
federal prosecutors are probing its accounting.

The Nasdaq Composite
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had
been the strongest of the three indices, but has now retreated to the down-side.

Express Scripts
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is forming a
pullback from its recent high.
ESRX is carrying a

3
-month
relative strength rank of 93
from TradingMarkets.com

Invision Technologies
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is rallying from the 50-day moving average after a pull-back from the high. INVN
has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 96
and an up trending

ADX
of 30.

Biosite
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is pulling back after a
thrust higher.
The stock is holding a

3
-month
relative strength rank of 98
from TradingMarkets.com.

L-3 Communications
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is rallying from the 20-day moving average after a
pull-back from the high with increasing volume. L-3 has a

TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 93
.

Nasdaq Breadth

Adv: 1148 UpVol: 321535800

Dec: 1973 DnVol: 485984376

Net: -825 Net: -164448576

NYSE Breadth

Adv: 944 UpVol: 18166713

Dec: 2214 DnVol: 73007340

Net: -1270 Net: -54840627