What The Close May Be Telling Traders
Trading was thin and choppy in
pre-holiday trading, with the major indexes staging opening reversals, then
zigzagging to the day’s highs by 2:00 p.m. ET, until sellers took over in the
final hours, bringing the indexes to close in negative territory.
The biggest gainers were in
forest and paper, energy, oil service, transportation and healthcare.
Leading the losers were
biotechnology, networking, Internet, software and computer technology.
This day of trading wraps up
the first positive month in five for the S&P 500, while the Dow continues a
five-month decline, and the Nasdaq a seven-month slide. Next Tuesday traders are
looking forward to volume coming back to normal as the fall season comes in.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
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PowerRating) closed down 0.08% at 8663.50.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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PowerRating) closed down 0.18% at 916.08. The
Nasdaq
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$COMPQ |
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U.S. Treasury Bonds
closed up ’10 at 110 ’28.
In economic news, personal
income came in unchanged vs. an expected 0.3%. The University of
Michigan’s sentiment number came in at 87.6 vs. an expected reading of 88.
Also, the Chicago PMI was reported at 54.9 vs. an expected 52.00.
Volume was low at 966,501,420
on the NYSE, and 974,518,110
on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of 1.38, and up–volume
over down–volume
by a 1.05 ratio. Nasdaq declining issues over advancing issues came in at 1.25,
and down–volume
beat up–volume
by a 3.38 ratio. The
VIX
was down 0.52 at 35.80. The TRIN
was down 0.05 at 1.21.
The top sectors on the session were the Forest
and Paper Index
(
$FPP.X |
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Energy Index
(
$DXE.X |
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Losing
sectors on the session were
the Biotechnology Index
(
$BTK.X |
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PowerRating), down 4.21% at 346.38, and the Computer
Hardware Index
(
$HWI.X |
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PowerRating), down 3.41% at 99.70.
Computer hardware maker Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
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PowerRating), down 3.65% at 3.69, announced weak sales in a progress report, as
companies put off the purchase of new technology.Â
Chip maker Novellus
(
NVLS |
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PowerRating), up 0.69% at 24.46,
lowered its earnings expectations for the third quarter with new bookings
guidance of $220 mln vs. July guidance of $250 mln.
Also in the chip business, Merrill Lynch downgraded the
following companies to “neutral” from “buy”: KLA-Tencor
(
KLAC |
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PowerRating), down 2.11% at 32.91, Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
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PowerRating), down
0.59% at 13.36, Lam Research
(
LRCX |
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PowerRating), down 2.67% at 11.63, and Novellus
(
NVLS |
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PowerRating), up 0.69% at 24.46.
Communication services company Bell South
(
BLS |
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PowerRating),
down 3.83% at 23.32, lowered its earnings expectations for 2002 by 7 cents a
share.
Also in the communications business, Goldman Sachs cut its
estimates on Verizon Communications
(
VZ |
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PowerRating), up 0.32% at 31.00, and SBC
Communications
(
SBC |
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PowerRating), down 4.10% at 24.74.
Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb
(
BMY |
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PowerRating), up 2.71%
at 24.95, was reported by Business Week magazine as being thought of by
“pros” as on its way to recovery, and the potential target of hostile
bids for a takeover.
Online retailer Amazon.com
(
AMZN |
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PowerRating), down 1.51%
at 14.94, announced that Thomas Szkutak will become its chief
financial officer. Szkutak was formerly the chief financial officer of GE.