Why It’s Wait-And-See Time Now
Today’s action gives us no indication of what may be to come, so it’s
a wait-and-see game right now. As
Gary Kaltbaum reminds us in his most recent column, bear market rallies are
sharp and quick, sucking players into thinking a bottom is intact, only to fold
over weeks later. Trading was light this Columbus Day, with the major indexes
taking a breather after two huge up days, chopping sideways for most of the
session.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed +0.34% at 7,877.40. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed +0.73% at 841.44. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed +0.83% at
1,220.53.
The biggest winners were
biotechnology
(
$BTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +5.44%, Internet
(
$ECM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.78%,
oil service
(
$OSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.56%, broker/dealers
(
$XBD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.97%,
and pharmaceuticals
(
$DRG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.12%.
The worst-performing sectors of
the day were utilities
(
$UTIL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.54%, and insurance
(
$IUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-1.28%.
There were no economic releases
today.
U.S. Treasury Bonds did
not trade due to the holiday.
The dollar was -0.09 at
107.50.
Volume was light, at
1,154,858,000
on the NYSE, and 1,189,965,000
on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of 1.04, and up
volume over down volume by a 1.31 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining
issues came in at 1.12, and up volume beat down volume by a 1.71 ratio.
The
VIX was -0.83 at 42.61. The
TRIN was +0.38 at 0.79.
Leading the Dow were: Merck
Co.
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), 4.86% at 49.60, Philip Morris
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.45% at
38.29, Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.95% at 29.30, Coca Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.13% at 52.55, and Johnson and Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.99% at 57.83.
Auto maker General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.48% at 33.26, was the worst performer on the Dow as it was
downgraded by Merrill Lynch to “neutral” from “buy”
Stocks in
the news:
One of the biggest losers on
the day was electric utilities company TXU Corp.
(
TXU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -30.98% at
12.94, after the company announced it will cut its quarterly dividend to help
its credit rating and add to liquidity.
Computer hardware giant
International Business Machines
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.78% at 63.42, had its revenue
and earnings targets reduced by Morgan Stanley.
Media company Knight Ridder
(
KRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.49% at 57.66, announced earnings in line with estimates.
Travel stocks were hit with
losses early in the session on fears of terrorism after the attack in Bali,
though were able to shrug the news off by the end of the day. Expedia Inc.
(
EXPE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +5.11% at 49.93, and Hotels.com
(
ROOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.21% at
52.20.
Hotel company Marriott
International
(
MAR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.48% at 29.02, was the subject of a negative
New York Times article which cites that investors and industry
analysts are becoming increasingly concerned with the company’s
off-balance-sheet entity called CBM Joint Venture.
Communications equipment maker
ADTRAN
(
ADTN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -5.75% at 19.80, beat its third-quarter earnings
expectations by $0.02, with profits of $0.27 per share.
Biotech company Chiron
(
CHIR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+4.25% at 40.19, raised its earnings guidance for the third-quarter as it
expects profits of $0.45 per share vs. the First Call consensus of $0.32 per
share.