Why Technology Bounced Back
The
major indexes greeted the New Year with a sell off, as price action
went south of the bell, hit its intraday low around 10:30 ET, then headed higher
for the rest of the day for slightly higher closes. Technology made nice gains
for the day, as the Semiconductor Index
(
SOX.X |
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PowerRating) turned away from its
50-day MA for a 4.45% increase. Oil, biotechnology, and health care stocks
represented the weakness of the day.Â
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
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$INDU |
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PowerRating) closed up
0.52%Â
to 10,073.4.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX |
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PowerRating) closed up 0.45%
 to
1,153.29.
The Nasdaq [$COMPQ |$COMPQ] closed up 1.48%
to 1,979.26.
The Institute of Supply
Management, formerly known as the National Association of Purchasing Management,
reported that its purchasing index rose to 48.2 in December, up from November’s
44.5. Analysts were looking for a level of 45.8. Any reading under 50 represents
continued contraction in manufacturing purchasing.Â
Overall
NYSE volume was 1,166,571,000.
NYSE advancing issues were 1,645,
with up volume at 585,070,000;
declining issues were 1,544,
with down volume at 562,584,000.
Overall Nasdaq volume was 1,491,665,000.
Nasdaq advancing issues were
1,984,
with up volume at 1,046,762,000;
declining issues were 1,984 with
down volume at 423,376,000.
The VIX
was up 0.70 to 23.92. The TRIN
was down 0.98 to 1.00.
Top
sectors of the day were the Networking
Index
(
$NWX.X |
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PowerRating) up 5.40% at 336.09
and the Computer Hardware Index
(
$HWI.X |
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PowerRating) up 5.32% at 163.29.
Losing
sectors of the day were the Oil Service Sector
Index
(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating) down 4.26% at 83.42
and the Eurotop 100 Index
(
$TOP.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 1.97 to 2822.46.
Semiconductors improved today
as South Korean chipmaker Hynix said they would raise prices on memory chips.
The world’s number 1 provider of chips, Intel
(
INTC |
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PowerRating), jumped 4.74 to
32.94, and the world’s number 2 provider of chips Micron Technology
(
MU |
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PowerRating)
rose 2.17 to 33.17.
The nation’s number 2 discount
chain KMart Corp.
(
KM |
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PowerRating), which dropped 13.55% to 4.72, was downgraded
by Prudential Securities to Sell from Hold after a disappointing fourth quarter
and cash flow concerns. Â
Online auctioneer eBay
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EBAY |
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PowerRating),
down 1.23 to 66.08, was downgraded by Robertson Stephens to Buy from Strong Buy
due to a recent run up in its stock price and prospects of new investments.
Communications service company AT&T
(
T |
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PowerRating), up 3.09% to 18.70, was upgraded by Merrill Lynch to Buy from Neutral
for Comcast Corp’s
(
CMCSK |
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PowerRating), up 0.14 to 36.05, purchase of
AT&T’s cable television business for $47 billion.
Media powerhouse AOL
Time-Warner
(
AOL |
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PowerRating), down 1.50% to 31.62, was one of Wall Street’s most
active stocks, falling on a downgrade by Morgan Stanley for low subscriber
growth and advertising revenue.
Sierra Wireless, Inc
(
SWIR |
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PowerRating),
down 19.66% to 15.145, said fourth quarter sales were as much as 45% lower than
analysts’ estimates because the company wasn’t ready to ship some of its
products.