Are Hurricanes Good For The Economy?
Stocks were higher
on quadruple witch Friday
on an upbeat outlook from Ford
(
F |
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PowerRating)
and a Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
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PowerRating) stock buyback.
The semiconductor book to bill ratio came in at
1.00 in August from 1.04. The SOX up 9% in the last week and a half
touching 50 MA down 31% from highs in January. RBC downgraded the sector
to neutral on valuation.
Crude rose 3% and closed above $45 on fears of
more hurricanes.
The University of Michigan sentiment index edged
lower at 95.8; the consensus was 96.5.
In a Business Week article, Standard &
Poor’s chief economist David Wyss says that hurricanes can be good for the
economy. The destruction caused requires rebuilding and helps GDP. The positive
impact, he says, won’t be felt untiil after the third quarter.
Nice perk. Search firm Heidrick & Struggles and
some top execs sold 1.2 million shares of Google
(
GOOG |
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PowerRating) recently.
The firm received rights to buy GOOG shares at 0.30 as part of a recruiting job
done for Google in 2001. The profit? $128.8 million.
The indices were basically flat for the week, but
sectors making new highs are oils, services, transports and utilities.
| Dow | +39.97 | 10284.46 |
| S&P 500 | +5.05 | 1128.55 |
| Nasdaq | +6.01 | 1910.09 |
Strong today were: Biotech
(
BTK.X |
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PowerRating)
+1.83%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
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PowerRating) +1.84%, Oil
(
XOI.X |
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PowerRating)
+1.64%.
Weak were: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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PowerRating) -1.36%, Brokers
(
XBD.X |
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PowerRating) -1.15%, Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
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PowerRating)
-0.96%.
10-year Notes were -120 at 112 220.
The dollar
was +0.13 at 88.91.
Gold was +1.50 at 405.50.
Crude Oil was +1.73 at 45.65.
Volume was 1.4 billion
on the NYSE and 1.6billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1728 | Up Vol 863 |
| Declining | 1549 | Down Vol 562 |
| Ratio | 1.11 | 1.53 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1557 | Up Vol 998 |
| Declining | 1518 | Down Vol 599 |
| Ratio | 1.02 | 1.66 |
Stocks in the News
Ford
(
F |
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PowerRating) raised its Q3 and 2004 estimates, and will cut 1500 jobs at
its Jaguar plant in Britain. The company now sees 1.90 – 2.10.
Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
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PowerRating) will buy back $1 billion in stock and
boosted its quarterly dividend to 0.10.
3COM
(
COMS |
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PowerRating) had a slightly narrower loss and guided higher for
the current quarter.
Circuit City
(
CC |
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PowerRating) reported 0.06, beating estimates and said it was
on track to open 60 new stores.
Knight Ridder
(
KRI |
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PowerRating) guided lower, citing lower ad revenue at the Miami
Herald due to the hurricanes.
Cisco
(
CSCO |
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PowerRating) was downgraded at Lehman.
Anheuser Busch
(
BUD |
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PowerRating) was downgraded to hold at Deutsche Bank.
Qualcomm
(
QCOM |
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PowerRating) is raising guidance for Q4 and said it may change
the way it accounts for royalties, which may adversely affect revenues.
Carnival
(
CCL |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.03.
Brice Wightman