Why Today’s Upgrade Is Important For The Market
Stocks
are moderately higher this midday after earlier weakness. Despite
some early morning weakness brought on by an SEC investigation into Siebel
Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and lower-than-expected weekend sales from Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
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PowerRating),
the major indices staged an impressive turnaround and took out their May 6
highs. Every sector is in the green and no red is in sight. Tech stocks are
leading the pack today after Lehman Brothers upgraded networking giant Cisco
Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). However the US dollar continues to weaken and is at another
four-year low against the euro. Bonds are also continuing their run.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is +1.03% at 8,693.32. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is +1.03% at 943.03. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is +1.29% at
1539.87..
The day’s leading sectors are Networking
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.65%, Biotechs
(
$BTK.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.64%, Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.47%, and Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.41%..
Weak today are: None.
No economic news to report
today.
The 10-year U.S. Note
is +60 at 116 290.
The dollar is down 0.46
at 94.70
Gold is +1.30 at 350.10
Crude Oil +0.31 at 28.03
Volume is 559,000,000 on
the NYSE, and at 818,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is decisively
positive, with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of
2.15, and up volume over down volume by a 4.63 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues
over declining issues are at 1.80, and up volume over down volume is at a
6.5 ratio.
Top Dow stocks are:
SBC Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +5.32%
at 24.93, Altria Group
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.70% at 33.19, International Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.62% at 37.49, and American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.61% at 40.84.
Stocks in the news:
Apparel retailer Ann Taylor
Stores
(
ANN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) jumped to a five-month high today after Prudential upgraded
the stock to "buy" from "hold." Prudential based the upgrade
on valuation and raised their 12-month price target to $28.
Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
jumped 5% and is near a 52-week high. Lehman Brothers upgraded the issue from
"equal weight" to "over weight."
Phillip Morris
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is up 3.7% after a positive Barron’s article. Barron’s believes that the
stock is "cheap".
Siebel Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is off 2.5%. The company is under investigation by the SEC to determine if fair
disclosure regulations were broken. Shares of Siebel jumped 8% one day after a
dinner attended by analysts, investors, and company executives.