What’s Inspiring Buyers To Step In
The
major indexes gapped up this morningface=”Arial”>, and after an early pullback, rallied higher to
consolidations which held for most of the day, before late-day
selling brought prices slightly lower into the close, retaining
most of the gains made for the day. There were no losing sectors,
as Internet, semiconductors, and computer hardware made the
biggest gains.
A strong dollar
coupled with a widely held belief that the Fed will lower rates
next week helped inspire buyers into American stocks, though the
long-term effects of this news is unclear. As
seductive.
The Dow Jones
Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
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PowerRating) closed up 2.86% at
8274.09. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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PowerRating) closed up 2.99%
at 859.57 at 834.60. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
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PowerRating) closed up
4.43% at 1259.45% at 1259.45.
U.S. Treasury
Bonds were down 1’03 at 106 ’27.
There were no
economic releases today.
Market
breadth was positive, with NYSE advancing issues over
declining issues by a ratio of 2.92, and up volume over down
volume by a 4.07 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining
issues came in at 2.36, and up volume beat down volume by a 7.94
ratio. The
was down 3.58 at 45.73. The
was down 1.65 at 0.63.
Below average
volume had the Dow the S&P 500 rally to test their 20-day
MA’s before pulling back, while the Nasdaq closing fell short of
its 20-day MA. Semiconductor Index
(
$SOX.X |
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PowerRating), up
6.20% at 301.54, erased yesterday’s loss. The Broker/Dealer
Index
(
$XBD.X |
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PowerRating), up 3.99% at 354.06, closed near the
top of its range, though failed to close above yesterday’s highs.
The top
sectors of the day were the CBOE Internet Index
(
$INX.X |
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PowerRating), up 7.11% at 62.76, and the GSTI Internet Index
(
$GSM.X |
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PowerRating), up 6.27% at 150.46.
Losing
sectors: there were no losing sectors today.
Personal computer maker Dell
Computer
(
DELL |
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PowerRating), up 5.23% at 24.32, was upgraded by
Needham to "buy" from "hold" on increasing
market share and anticipation of a PC recovery in 2003.
Insurance giant MetLife
(
MET |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 1.13% at 25.34, surprised analysts when it
announced earnings of of expectations, though warned that profits
for the full year will likely miss its forecasts.
Communications equipment maker Lucent
Technologies
(
LU |
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PowerRating), up 3.22% at 1.60, gad its outlook
reduced by Standard & Poor’s to "negative" from
"stable" citing "challenging market
conditions."
Drug maker Cephalon [CEPH|CEPH],
up 2.65% at 44.07, has beat its second-quarter earnings
expectations by 4 cents with profits of 25 cents a share.
Also in the drug making business,
Schering-Plough
(
SGP |
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PowerRating), up 0.84% at 22.70, was
downgraded by Merrill Lynch to "neutral" from
"strong buy."
Healthcare company Cardinal
Health
(
CAH |
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News |
PowerRating), up 7.07% at 55.71, beat its fourth-quarter
earnings expectations by a penny with profits of 74 cents per
share.