After The Close, 2:1 Split Announced!
Stocks were higher in
light holiday trading Monday, boosted by optimism about upcoming earnings
announcements. With the bond market closed, it was a low volume day
with flat internals.
It’s a big week for financial company announcements, including Merrill Lynch,
Citigroup, Bank of America and State Street.
Home Depot
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Texas Instruments
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Micron
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PowerRating) was also downgraded to a sell at Deutsche Bank. Google
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PowerRating) was cut to a ‘sell’ at American Technology Research. GOOG is down
2.3%.
A 4-day strike by Nigerian oil workers began
today; oil hit an intraday high of $53.64.
Trader talk: Merrill Lynch
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reports tomorrow; will profits be affected by slower trading? Also
reporting tomorrow are: Intel, 0.27; Johnson & Johnson, 0.76, and
Yahoo, 0.09 (estimates in parentheses).
After the close, St. Jude
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announced a 2:1 stock split to shareholders of record on November 1, payable
November 22.
| Dow | +26.77 | 10081.97 |
| S&P 500 | +2.42 | 1124.56 |
| Nasdaq | +8.79 | 1928.76 |
Strong sectors were: Biotech
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BTK.X |
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RLX.X |
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PowerRating) +0.82%.
Weak sectors were: Oil
Services
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OSX.X |
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-0.99%, Gold
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PowerRating) -0.71%.
The dollar
was -0.89 at 87.63
Gold was -0.10 at 421.60
Crude Oil was +0.34 at 53.28
1.1 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1729 | Up Vol 453 |
| Declining | 1508 | Down Vol 477 |
| Ratio | 1.14 | 1.05 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1821 | Up Vol 716 |
| Declining | 1230 | Down Vol 438 |
| Ratio | 1.48 | 1.63 |
Stocks in the News
SunTrust Banks
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PowerRating) will restate earnings for Q1 and Q2.
Biogen-Idec
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PowerRating) upgraded to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at
Lehman.
New Century
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PowerRating) may be vulnerable in an economic downturn, says
Barron’s.
Brice Wightman