All Eyes On Micron
Stocks are
staging a rally after this morning’s choppy trading.
The QQQs are trading at its 50-EMA and traders are hoping that tonight’s
earnings from Micron
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will spark a rally from that level. Analysts are expecting a loss of 7-8 cents per share.
New homes surged 5.8% to 1.163
million units as the housing market continues to benefit from record low
interest rates. Durable orders also rose 2.5% with higher demand for aircraft
products. Soybeans futures have almost doubled since last August as farmers
started spreading seeds earlier than expected to take advantage of the boom in
that sector.
The EU commission handed
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) a record $611 million fine for monopoly abuse. The
ruling also demanded Microsoft to unbundle its Windows Media Player within 90
days and pass along its source code to its competitors. Microsoft vowed
to appeal, with its shares trading 1% higher today. Red Hat
(
RHAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $5 million with revenue that jumped $37 million. Renewal
rates for its Linux products reached 90%.
| Dow | +41.91 |
10105.41 |
| S&P 500 |
+4.24 | 1098.32 |
| Nasdaq | +20.71 |
1922.51 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.71%, Computer Technology
(
XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +
0.99%, Software
(
GSO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 0.79%, and Transport
(
$TRANX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.59%.
Weak today are Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.73%, and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.18%.
Economic news releases today
included durable orders up 2.5% with new home sales also up at 1163K.
10-year Notes are +90 at
117 085
The dollar
is +0.58 at 88.80
Gold is -0.10 at 418.90
Crude Oil is unch at
37.11
The Euro
is -0.13 at 122.94
Volume is 649,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 865,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1293 | Up Vol 270 |
| Declining | 1768 | Down Vol 357 |
| Ratio | 1.42 | 1.30 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1431 | Up Vol 576 |
| Declining | 1502 | Down Vol 248 |
| Ratio | 1.06 | 2.29 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.16%
at 26.72, Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.03% at 21.80, WalMart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.70% at 59.23, and Du Pont
(
DD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.62% at 41.36.
Stocks in the news:
Teva Pharmaceuticals
(
TEVA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Endo Pharmaceuticals
(
ENDP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received
FDA approval to market two generic versions of OxyContin.
Endo Pharmaceuticals secured 6 months as the only generic seller.
Reliance Steel
(
RS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose 6% after upping its earnings forecast by 100% to $0.80 cents on high metal
prices.
Cooper Tire & Rubber
(
CTB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 9% after announcing plans to sell its
Cooper-Standard Automotive Group which generated revenues of $1.66 billion in
2003.
Prudential upgraded Novell
(
NOVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
citing the recent decline which has made the stock more attractive.