Why Buy-Back Is A Positive Sign
Stocks are on the decline once again today
pulling up off of the worst levels of the day. Some of the same culprits are
plaguing the markets again — discouraging earnings guidance from large companies
such as Microsoft
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and news that companies are being investigated for questionable business
activities, e.g., Johnson & Johnson
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to decline. Over the weekend Worldcom
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WCOME |
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bankruptcy in US history.
With more stocks dropping in value, many
corporations are stepping in and announcing buy-back programs of their own
stock. This is a positive sign, because if anyone should know the true value of
a stock, it should be the company itself. (Unless of course it doesn’t know if its
own books are cooked.)
Volume is very high on the exchanges today. At
the midpoint the NYSE has 1.16 billion shares trading hands and on the NASDAQ
1.38 billion shares have been traded.
There are more losing Sectors on the day than
there are winners.
The strongest sectors on the day are:
Alcoholic Beverages, such as Anheuser Busch
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BUD |
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Semiconductors
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$SOX.X |
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The weakest sectors on the day are: Telecom,
Gold
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$XAU.X |
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$XBD.X |
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$BKX.X |
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$OSX.X |
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and Natural Gas
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Stocks with unusually high volume and are positive: Honda Motors
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HMC |
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Stocks with unusually high volume and
are dropping today; United Parcel Service
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UPS |
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Arthur J. Gallagher
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AJG |
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RD |
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Enzon
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GS |
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AL |
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Bell South
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BLS |
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PowerRating).
NASDAQ Breadth:
Adv: 1027 UpVol: 66816521
Dec: 2368 DnVol: 66039850
Net: -1341 Net: +776671
NYSE Breadth:
Adv: 636 UpVol: 2595184
Dec: 2606 DnVol: 10826442
Net: -1970 Net: -8231258