Upbeat Indications

Stocks slipped into the red today in response to
a worse-than-expected unemployment number. Airline, utility, and
transportation stocks represent the few areas of strength, while oil, Internet,
and software sectors remain the most beaten down.

Market breadth is negative with declining issues
over advancing issues by 2:1, and down volume dominating up volume by 2:1.

The Labor Department reported
that the U.S. economy lost 331,000 jobs for the month of November, far off the
189,000 anticipated. This year’s months of October and November have been the
worst for job losses since May and June of 1980.

The University of Michigan’s
consumer sentiment index was also released today, coming in at 85.8, making
three straight months of increased positive sentiment for our economy. The
consensus estimates forecasted a level of 84.1. The markets appeared to be more
concerned with the negative employment data.

Upbeat indications from the
tech sector may be thwarting the market’s response to the unemployment report.
Intel

(
INTC |
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, down

2.63% to 33.261,
raised its sales
forecasts for the fourth quarter to between $6.7 billion and $6.9 billion from
$2.6 billion and $6.8 billion. Advanced Micro Devices
(
AMD |
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, up
12.62% to
18.30,
announced fourth quarter sales will surpass third quarter sales by 10 percent.
Sun Microsystems
(
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, down
4.31% to
13.54,
said
that business was stabilizing and would meet fourth quarter expectations

Leading sectors today are the Airline Index

(
$XAL.X |
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, up
3.13% at 90.74, and the S&P Transport Index
(
$TRX.X |
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, up
1.98% at 621.76.

The biggest losing sectors today are the Oil
Service Sector

(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating)
, down 4.46% at
77.48, and the AMEX Internet Index
(
$IIX.X |
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, down 2.84% at 153.26

From our percent gainers list:

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
(
AMD |
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up
12.06% at 18.21 on
twice its average volume. This semiconductor company announced
that fourth-quarter revenue will beat estimates by about
$61 million and come in at $840 million, and that losses will narrow
from the third quarter.

E*TRADE Group, Inc.
(
ET |
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PowerRating)
up
9.18% at 10.70 on over twice average volume. This investments services
company raised its earnings forecast to 40 to 50 cents a share, over analysts
projections of 34 cents a share.

Vesta Insurance Group, Inc.
(
VTA |
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PowerRating)
up
8.76% at 6.58 on less than 100% average volume. The insurance
company announced it will buy back 5 million of its own shares.

From our percent losers list:

Coldwater Creek Inc.
(
CWTR |
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PowerRating)
down
32.12% at 18.26 on over twenty-three times average volume. This retail
catalog company warned that third quarter earnings will be sharply lower than
last year, and that it will report a loss for the fourth quarter.

Centillium Communications, Inc.
(
CTLM |
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PowerRating)
down
17.34% at
8.20 on over 100 percent average volume. This communications company was
downgraded by UBS Warburg, who trimmed fourth quarter expectations to 10 cents a
share to 6 cents a share.

Integrated Device Technology Inc.
(
IDTR |
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PowerRating)
down 14.74%
at 26.50 almost four times average volume. This semiconductor company was down
graded by CIBC World Markets to Hold from Buy, and by Salomon Smith Barney to
Neutral from Buy.