Will Indices Stay Positive On Negative News?
The major indexes are slightly
positive on the session, as negative news continues to dominate business
headlines. There is now speculation that President Bush will intervene with the
West Coast lockout of dock workers.
size=2>The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is +0.44% at
7455.67. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is +0.93% at 792.60. The
Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is -0.27% at 1122.50.
The biggest advancers are in
banks, retail, insurance, and financial.
U.S. Treasury Bonds are + ’16
at 114 ’14.
The dollar is +0.45 at
108.35.
Leading the Dow are Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.80% at 15.13, Coca Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.29% at 51.78, and Wal
Mart +3.17% at 51.95.
Stocks in the news:Â Â Â
Beverage Pepsico
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+13.05,% at 40.45, has beat its third-quarter earnings expectations by a penny,
with profits of $0.56 per share.
Education company Apollo Group
(
APOL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +6.29% at 42.71, has beat its fourth-quarter earnings estimates by
$0.04 with profits of $0.26 per share.
Retailer Dollar Tree
(
DLTR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.02% at 19.75, has cut its fourth-quarter sales estimates to
$825-830 million vs. the Multex consensus of $847.56 million.
Auto giant General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -5.18% at 34.01, has lowered its 2003 sales outlook
due to weak world economies. The auto sector has also been downgraded as a whole
by CSFB.
Financial services company
Household International
(
HI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.07% at 23.00, has been downgraded by
CIBC to “sector underperform” from “sector perform” in anticipation of
credit quality deterioration.