A September to remember for the Dow

Stocks rose the last day of the
quarter, with

the Dow posting its first September gain in seven years.
Crude
finished at $66.24.

Energy stocks gained close to 20% for Q3. Natural
gas rose 80% in Q3 with gasoline rising 44% and crude oil, +13%.

Canada’s Supreme Court upheld the right of provinces
to sue the tobacco industry. Altria
(
MO |
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gained 0.06 to close at
73.71.

Google
(
GOOG |
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co-founder Larry Page
filed to sell 1.2 million shares, Bloomberg reported. Separately, the stock
rallied on speculation that the stock would be added to the S&P 500 at the close
of business tonight or possible Monday. GOOG rose 6.84, closing at 316.46.

Micron
(
MU |
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reported a surprise profit for Q4,
beating estimates.

Machinists at Boeing
(
BA |
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approved a
three-year contract, ending a near month-long strike. Separately, Aeroflot said
they will buy two to five Boeing 767 jets.

AMR
(
AMR |
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said it will temporarily cancel
15 flights from its Chicago O’Hare and Dallas DFW hubs because of the high cost
of jet fuel.

Personal income in August fell 0.1%;
personal spending
fell 0.5%. The University of Michigan consumer
sentiment
index was 76.9 vs. 78 consensus. The Chicago PMI was 60.5
vs 52.0 consensus.



Strong Sectors
were:  
  Airlines  
(
XALI |
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+2.28%        Semis
(
SOX |
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+1.92%      Disk Drives
(
DDX |
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+1.92%     



Weak sectors
were:
    
Oil Services
 
(
OSX |
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-2.30%        
Oil

(
OIX |
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-1.40%      Gold 
(
XAU |
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-1.37%    


Dow

+15.84
10,568.62


Nasdaq

+10.47 2151.69


S&P 500

+1.14
1228.82

Stocks in the news:

VeriSign
(
VRSN |
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warned for Q3. The stock
was downgraded to peer perform at RBC Capital.

SafeNet
(
SFNT |
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PowerRating)

got whacked on Thursday, but after the close the company announced it got a $150
million contract from the Department of Defense.

Ceradyne
(
CRDN |
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PowerRating)
received a ceramic
body armor order from the U.S. Army and Marines worth $9.1 million.

National Semiconductor
(
NSM |
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PowerRating)
has an analyst meeting on Friday.

Brice Wightman