Another Credit Card Company Joins The Chinese Fray
Stocks are
mixed on higher consumer confidence levels.
Five NYSE firms settled with the SEC for $241.8
million on improper trading charges. All firms settled without admitting guilt
and denied any wrongdoings. The White House finally agreed to let
Condoleezza Rice testify under oath publicly before the 9/11 commission. Oil
prices went back up after a spokesman from Saudi Arabia said he was in favor of
a supply cut.
American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
signed an agreement with China’s largest state-run bank ICBC to issue its own
brand of credit cards to Chinese consumers. Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reached a
$225 million agreement with Intergraph
(
INGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for its Itanium
microchip. Intergraph also granted Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) various licenses and
dropped pending litigation against Dell
| Dow | -2.58 | 10326.52 |
| S&P 500 |
-0.16 | 1122.30 |
| Nasdaq | -4.12 | 1988.44 |
The day’s leading sectors are Oil
Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.54%, Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.79% Amex
Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.64% and Oil Index
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.59%,
Weak today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.27% and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.10%.
Economic news releases today
included higher consumer confidence levels at 88.3.
10-year Notes are +75 at
115 045
The dollar
is -0.33 at 88.65
Gold is +4.40 at 422.20
Crude oil is +0.85 at
35.50
The euro
is +0.25 at 121.18
Volume is 590,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 710,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1793 | Up Vol    293 |
| Declining | 1291 | Down Vol  237 |
| Ratio | 1.42 | 1.25 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1503 | Up Vol   324 |
| Declining |
1449 | Down Vol 347 |
| Ratio | 1.05 | 1.06 |
Top Dow stocks are:
American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.67% at 51.70, General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.26% at 47.13, Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.02% at 49.91, and Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.97% at 34.93,
Stocks in the news:
Silicon Storage Technology
(
SSTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided the Street higher after seeing strong sales and decreases
in manufacturing costs. The company now says it will earn 12 cents on revenue of
$102 million.
NPS
Pharmaceuticals
(
NPSP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced positive Stage III results of
its osteoporosis trials. Shares rose 12% as a result.
Restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen
(
CPKI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its first-quarter profit outlook reporting same-store sales
up by 6.2%. It now expect earnings to reach 19 cents
Autodesk
(
ADSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its
first-quarter and annual outlook on strength in all divisions. Earnings for the
first quarter will be around 25 cents with revenue at $270 million and for the
full year, revenue should reach $1.06 billion with earnings at $1.31 cents a
share.