Two Things To Stir Up Volatility

March 19, 2003
Daniel Beighley

The
major indexes were mixed at the close after holding narrow trading
ranges for the day. In a sign of optimism going into the 48-hour deadline given
for Saddam tonight, price action rallied into the close. Two things likely to
stir volatility in the coming sessions are military conflict and triple witching
options expiration this Friday. Holding the Nasdaq back, software issues sold
off on the heels of Oracle’s negative earnings outlook, while the Dow and S&P
500 were up for six days in a row.

There were no economic releases
for today.

The Ten Year Note
(
TYH3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was -140 at 113 185.

The US dollar
(
DXH3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was +0.71 at 102.11.

Volume was slightly
above average, with the NYSE coming in at 1,408,319,000 and the Nasdaq at
1,693,855,000.

Market breadth was mostly
positive, with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of
1.18, and up volume over down volume by a 1.82 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues
over declining issues came in at 1.07, and down volume beat up volume by a 1.25
ratio.

The

VIX was +0.40 at 36.18. The

TRIN was +0.11 at 0.65.

Topping the Dow were:

Stocks in the news:

Transportation company
Federal Express
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +6.77% at 55.18, reported third-quarter earnings
$0.01 behind expectations with profits of $0.49 per share.

Shares of healthcare facilities
company Healthsouth Corp.
(
HRC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) were suspended Wednesday after the
SEC charged the company with accounting fraud.

Chip maker Microchip
Technology Incorporated
(
MCHP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -9.43% at 21.50, guided lower for the
fourth-quarter and now expects to earn $0.17 per share vs. a consensus estimate
of $0.18 per share.

Fabricated product maker
Parker Hannifin
(
PH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.69% at 40.04, lowered its earnings guidance for
the quarter to $0.43-0.53 per share vs. previous estimates of $0.55-0.65.per
share.

Biotechnology company
Affymetrix
(
AFFX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.23% at 28.49, was downgraded by JP Morgan to
“neutral” from “overweight.”

Cruise line company Carnival
Cruise Lines
(
CCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.30% at 24.45, was upgraded by Banc of America to
“buy” from “neutral.”

Drug retailer CVS Corp.
(
CVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.83% at 25.37, was downgraded by JP Morgan to “neutral” from
“overweight.”

Motion picture company
Westwood One
(
WON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.77% at 31.50, guided lower for the first-quarter
and full year, and now expects full year revenue growth to be in the low to
mid-single digit growth vs. previous guidance of mid-single digit growth.

Investment services company
Bear Stearns
(
BSC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.15% at 65.89, beat its first-quarter
earnings expectations by $0.65 per share with profits of $2.00 per share.

Defense contractor Lockheed
Martin
(
LMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.07% at 47.80, was upgraded by Morgan Stanley to
“overweight” from “equal-weight.”

Home builder Lennar Corp.
(
LEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.82% at 53.52, beat its first-quarter earnings expectations by
$0.10 per share with profits of $1.51 per share.

danielb@tradingmarkets.com

Two Things To Stir Up Volatility

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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