A Spray To Treat Obesity On The Way?
Stocks
continued their weakness with the Dow dragging down the indices. The
US trade gap ballooned to $43.1 billion in January with oil prices boosting
imports with prices jumping to $28.55 a barrel, the highest since March 2003.
Mortgage applications rose to 1.2% as interest rates fell to their lowest lowest
level since last June. From the trivia department, March 10, 2000 was the
Nasdaq high at 5048.
Nastech Pharmaceutical
(
NSTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said results from its experimental nasal-sprays for sexual dysfunction and
obesity both reported positive results. The company’s shares edged up 9%.
Four major ISPs, Earthlink
(
ELNK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Time Warner
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
and Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) filed six lawsuits against hundreds of
spammers under the new anti-spam law that took effect last year. Procter &
Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a 2-for-1 stock split and guided the Street higher
with volume growth of 10%, beating earnings by a penny. PG also raised its
annual dividend by 4 cents to 50 cents. This is the eighth time in nine quarters that the company has raised its guidance.
According to Reuters, U.S.
applications for mortgage loans rose last week as rates fell to their lowest
level since last June and economists expect the low rates to spur more demand
for new loans.
| Dow | -17.50 |
10438.81 |
| S&P 500 |
-2.85 | 1137.92 |
| Nasdaq | +0.34 | 1995.55 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.23%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.98%,
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.74%, and Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.53%.
Weak today are Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.22%, and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.24%.
Economic news releases today
included wholesale inventories that rose a mere 0.1%, much lower than the
expected 0.4%. The US trade deficit rose to $43.1 billion, higher than the
estimated $42 billion.
10-year Notes are +35
at 117 170
The dollar
is +0.71 at 89.10
Gold is +4.80 at 399.90
Crude Oil is -0.26 at
36.02
The uuro
is -0.52 at 123.36
Volume is 690,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 951,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1456 | Up Vol 223 |
| Declining | 1686 | Down Vol 399 |
| Ratio | 1.16 | 1.79 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1418 | Up Vol 501 |
| Declining | 1561 | Dow Vol 407 |
| Ratio | 1.09 | 1.23 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Procter & Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.20% at
106.80, McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+1.41% at 29.49, Altria [MO|MO]
+1.22% at 58.96, and ExxonMobil [XOM|XOM],
+0.49% at 42.99.
Stocks in the news:
Rockwell Automation
(
ROK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said
that its second-quarter earnings would be above expectations. With strong sales,
it now expects earnings to reach 35 cents a share for the next quarter.
Talbots
(
TLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings
that fell to $22 million on net sales of $431.5 million with same-store sales
ticking down 4.7%.
El Paso
(
EP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) jas delayed release of its
fourth-quarter earnings due to a negative revision for its natural gas reserves.