What Are The Daily Bars Saying?

• October 17, 2001
• Daniel Beighley

All
three major indexes bolted upwards from the opening bell, before
being forced down around 10 a.m. ET, with news of anthrax concerns shutting down
the nation’s Capitol. The markets finished the day on heavy selling.
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closed down 1.61% at 9232.97. The S&P 500
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at 1077.09. The Nasdaq
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On
positive earnings announcements from key companies and a better-than-expected
Housing Starts report, stocks jumped into the green for the first half-hour of
trading, before enthusiasm was choked-off by more anthrax alerts and economic
testimony by Allen Greenspan. News of anthrax infecting 31 workers in
Senator Tom Daschle’s office and spores of the deadly germ found in the Governor
of New York George Pataki’s office sent Wall Street into sell mode, and kept it
in a dour mood into the close. In front of Congress, Chairman Greenspan
testified that the attacks of 9/11 have likely hurt short-term economic growth,
though in the long-run our prospects via technological advancement and
productivity growth have “scarcely diminished.” 

NYSE
advancing issues were 1,143, with up-volume at 398,801,888; declining issues
were 1,969, with down-volume at 1,039,977,472. Nasdaq advancing issues were
1,417, with up-volume at 366,691,392; declining issues were 2,215 with down
volume at 1,886,126,208. The VIX was up 1.90 to 37.12, and the Put/Call was up
0.06 to 0.633. Heavy volume today signals distribution among Wall Street players
and the near-term direction appears to be pointing down, with all three major
index marking ominous signs on the daily bars. On the Dow, the 9042 congestion
area is support, on the S&P the 1060 area. The Nasdaq’s 10/11 gap is the
first area of support. 

Top
sectors of the day were the Eurotop 100
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the Amex Hong Kong 30 Index 
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Losing
sectors of the day were the Semiconductor Sector Index
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at 428.62 and the Morgan Stanley Internet Index
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at 11.1.

AOL
Time Warner
(
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quarter loss widened to $996 million, or 22 cents a share, from $902 million, or
21 cents a share, a year earlier
.

UAL Corp
(
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to $16.85, as the parent company of United Airlines’ shares were relinquished on
the announcement that the air carrier will go out of business if it cannot stem
the losses from the 9/11 attacks.

Office
Depot
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retailer reported a 23% rise in third quarter earnings but remains skeptical for
the fourth quarter amidst a tough economic environment.

The
world’s biggest chip-maker, Intel
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,  was down 1.56% to $24.57 after it announced a 96% fall in third
quarter earnings, in line with expectations; and the world’s largest computer
company, IBM
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gained 1.03% to $102.90 after topping analysts estimates by a penny.

In
the Banking sector Citigroup
(
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cents a share compared to 0.67 a year ago. JP
Morgan Chase
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up 1.94% to $34.60 reported earnings of 0.51 cents a share compared to 0.70 a
year ago. Both Dow components do not see any improvement in store for the fourth
quarter.

Real
Networks
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cent per share profit for the 3rd Qtr. Though this number is down 4 cents from a
year ago, analysts were looking for the online media company to break even.

EMC
Corp.
(
EMC |
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PowerRating) down 16.65% to $11.21 the data storage giant posted its first
loss in 12 years with a loss of 12 cents per share, down from a profit of 20
cents a share a year ago.