What Made The Market Go Green?
The broader markets trended
down for the first two-and-a-half hours of trading, then put in an impressive
rally to carry the indexes to positive closes. The semiconductor, oil service,
and retail stocks led the action, while Internet stocks bore the heaviest brunt
of the selling.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed up 1.50%Â to
9,762.86.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed up 0.98%
to 1,111.4.
The Nasdaq [$COMPQ |$COMPQ] closed up 1.08%
to 1,913.42.
This morning the nation’s GDP
came in with a 0.2% increase, beating expectations of a 1.2% decline, showing
that the economy was far healthier than most expected. The economy contracted
1.2% for the fourth quarter.
The results of the last two
days’ FOMC meeting left interest rates unchanged, in line with the Street’s
expectations.
Overall,
NYSE volume was 1,966,088,000.
NYSE advancing issues were 1,892,
with up-volume at 1,114,063,000;
declining issues were 1,218,
with down-volume at 837,626,000.
Overall, Nasdaq volume was 2,044,624,000.
Nasdaq advancing issues were 1,947,
with up-volume at 1,126,348,000;
declining issues were 1,625
with
down-volume at 888,791,000.
The VIX
was down 1.32 at 24.92. The TRIN
was down 1.90 at 1.16.
Above-average volume made for
an intraday reversal, as all three major indexes left tails on their daily bars.
The semiconductor index was able to close above its 50-day moving average, and
the broker/dealers closed above their 200-day moving averages.
Top
sectors of the day were the Semiconductor
Index
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 4.15% at 554.88
and the GSTI Semiconductor Index
(
$GSM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 2.98% at 276.74.
Losing
sectors of the day were the GSTI
Internet Index
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
down 2.31% at 98.89,
and the Amex Hong Kong Index
(
$HKX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 2.31% to 531.20.
Media giant America Online
(
AOL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.12% to 26.40, reported a fourth quarter loss of 41 cents a
share, surpassing this quarter last year’s loss of 25 cents a share. The
company’s losses were in line with analysts’ expectations, and it reiterated its
weak outlook for 2002.
Communications services company
AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 2.25% to 17.41, said it had earned 39 cents a share
for the fourth quarter, compared to 45 cents a year ago. The company also said
that revenue had declined 9.5% to 12.59 billion.
Veritas Software
(
VRTS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 6.65% to 43.08, beat earnings expectations and said that first
quarter earnings should also beat expectations. S.G. Cowen said the company is
gaining momentum, but may need to prove itself some to boost its share price.
Networking company Cisco
Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 1.26% to 19.25, was the focus of positive comments
from UBS Warburg with expectations that the company will exceed earnings and
revenue estimates.
The largest U.S. independent
oil and gas producer, Anadarko Petroleum
(
APC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.12% to 46.87,
said that it has restated its quarterly earnings to include a charge of $1.7
billion to reflect low oil and gas prices that cut the value of some of their
holdings.
Fears of improper accounting
practices revisited energy trader Williams Co.
(
WMB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 4.15% to
18.00, and travel services and residential real estate firm Cendant Corp.
(
CD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 2.72% to 16.07.
Communications Services company
WorldCom
(
WCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 5.77% to 9.80, was caught up in rumors that
Standard and Poor’s will downgrade its debt rating.