Big Day For Greenspan
Stocks are
drifting lower on news of higher than expected inflation.
Producer prices picked up steam, jumping 0.8%, the
largest jump since March 2003. The core PPI also rose 0.3%, with initial claims
falling 15,000 to 336,000 for the week ended June 12. The index of leading
economic indicators was up 0.5 percent in May to 116.5.
The Senate Banking committee
gave Greenspan the green light for a fifth term as Fed chief.
A new study showed that 82
million Americans — or one in three under age of 65 –Â lacked health
insurance for at least one month over the last two years according to a study by
Washington-based Families USA. California had the most people without insurance
at 11.9 million with Texas coming in second at 8.5 million.
| Dow | -14.45 | 103765.09 |
| S&P 500 | -3.20 | 11330.37 |
| Nasdaq | -15.33 | 1982.97 |
Strong today are Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.03%, Oil Index
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.80%, Gold
and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.78%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.71%
Strong today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.27%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.58%.
Economic news release today
include: PPI that rose by 0.8%, Core PPI also up 0.3%. Initial claims that fell
by 15,000 to 336,000. Leading indicators was up 0.5% with Philadelphia Fed Index
at 28.9.
10-year Notes are +20 at
108 080
The dollar
is -0.47 at 89.95
Gold is +3.20 at 388.40
Crude Oil is +0.69 at
38.01
Volume is 599,000
million on the NYSE, and 708,000 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1585 | Up Vol 289 |
| Declining | 1465 | Down Vol 286 |
| Ratio | 1.08 | 1.01 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1121 | Up Vol 198 |
| Declining | 1774 | Down Vol 491 |
| Ratio | 1.58 | 2.48 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.69% General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.87%, Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.82%Â Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.52%.
Stocks in the news:
General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) denied
rumors that they would close plants or cut jobs in Europe and would seek to save
costs by building more cars on the same basic platform.
TXU
(
TXU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) sold its Texas natural gas utility to
Atmos Energy
(
ATO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $1.93 billion in cash; allowing ATO to double its
utility customer base.
Accenture
(
ACN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted preliminary earnings of 37
cents a share on sales of $3.69 billion with consulting sales up 13% at $2.33
billion.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com