Will Sellers Step Back Again Friday?

August 29, 2002
Daniel Beighley

After
lower opens, the major indexes staged reversals, and marched to the
day’s highs by 1:00 PM ET. Sellers then took control, bringing prices back to
the day’s mid-point range, where buying pressure once again pushed the markets
up to just under the day’s highs.

The biggest gainers were in:
Internet, gold and silver, networking, healthcare, and software.

Leading the losers were: transportation,
oil service, utilities, and forest and paper.

Volume was pathetic, with
typical pre-holiday trading behavior. As the major indexes continue to flirt
with their 50- and 20-day moving averages, speculation has turned to what
reality the markets will give us when fall trading comes into swing next week.
Tomorrow will likely be another low-volume yawner, though releases of the University
of Michigan’s sentiment report (9:45 am ET) and the Chicago PMI
(10:00 am ET)Â are potential market movers.Â

U.S. Treasury Bonds
closed up ’25 at 109 ’28.

There were no economic releases
today.

Volume was low at Â 1,280,523,030
on the NYSE, and Â 1,329,543,797
on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive,
with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of 1.20, and up
volume over down volume by a 1.06 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues over declining
issues came in at 1.37, and up volume beat down volume by a 2.80 ratio. The
VIX
was up 0.24 at 36.32. The TRIN
was down 1.12 at 1.25.

Drug company Bristol Myers
Squibb
(
BMY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 3.07% at 24.29, announced that they are the target of
an investigation by the SEC over its 10-Q filing.

Internet portal Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
up 12.26% at 10.25, was upgraded by Merrill Lynch to “neutral” from
“sell” based on valuation.

UBS hit the semis with four
downgrades primarily due to valuation. Downgraded were:Â Novelus (NVLS),
up 0.45% at 24.29, Logic Vision (LGVN),
down 1.93% at 2.54, Lam Research (LRCX),
up 0.25% at 11.95, and Newport Corp. (NEWP),
down 2.97% at 16.32.

Conglomerate General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), down 3.03% at
30.35, had its 2003 earnings estimates reduced by Lehman Brothers, who said the
company’s pension fund could have a negative impact, though the fundamentals are
still intact.

Construction and machinery company Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
down 2.05% at 43.32, had its 2002 and 2003 earnings estimates lowered by UBS
Warburg due to weakness in the company’s markets.

Goldman Sachs put in another
round of downgrades on the airline industry, due to perceived weakness in the
near future. Among stocks downgraded were: Delta Airlines (DAL),
up 3.16% at 18.27, Continental Airlines (CAL),
up 0.09% at 10.26, United Airlines (UAL),
down 7.01% at 3.05, American Airlines (AMR),
up 4.90% at 10.48, and Southwest Airlines (LUV),
up 1.25% at 14.52.

Also in the chip sector, Micron Technology
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
down 3.25 at 17.25, had its estimates reduced by Morgan Stanley who claims back
to school buying has been weak.

Restaurant company Panera
Bread (PNRA),
up 6.81% at 29.32, been upgraded by Raymond James to “strong buy” from
“outperform” based on valuation.

Doughnut retailer Krispy
Kreme (KKD),
down 0.44% at 36.20, beat its second-quarter earnings expectations by a penny
with earnings of 15 cents a share.

Specialty retailer Michaels
Stores (MIK),
up 13.73 at 45.21, beat its second-quarter earnings expectations by 12 cents
with profits of 30 cents per share. The company has also increased its outlook.

Healthcare facilities company
Advanced PCS (ADVP),
up 2.78% at 19.22, has been upgraded by First Albany to “buy”
“neutral” based on belief that management will now fully cooperate
with an ongoing investigation and provide greater disclosure.

Will Sellers Step Back Again Friday?

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

Quick Links

Company Info

Contact

Company Resources