Billion-Dollar Buyback
Stocks are
trading higher. The Dow is once again
flirting with the 10,000 level amid a strong retail sales report. Weekly jobless
claims rose for the second week in a row to 378,000. Natural gas futures hit a
52-week high of $7 before pulling back. Home Deport
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it had
completed a $1 billion buyback program and its board approved the purchase of
another $1 billion. At a meeting with analysts, Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
predicted a favorable environment for its IT division in 2004. AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said it would start providing Internet telephone services next year. Goldman
Sachs’ chief investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen raised her 2003 and 2004
profit estimates for the S&P 500, saying EPS will rise 27% this year and
8% in 2004. She also said the S&P will reach 1250 by the end of 2004, up 17%
from today’s level.
| Dow | +62.52 |
9984.51 |
| S&P 500 | +8.85 | 1067.90 |
| Nasdaq | +25.04 |
1929.65 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Disk Drive
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.72%, Airlines
[XAL.X|XAL.X] +2.80%, Amex Gold Bugs [HUI.X|HUI.X]
+2.50%, and Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.26%,
Weak today are Oil Service
Sector
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.79, and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.26%, .
Economic news releases included
a 0.2% increase in export prices; import prices also rose by 0.3%. Initial
claims rose to 378,000, retail sales were up 0.9%. Auto sales increased by
0.4%.
10-year Notes are +5 at
112 290
The dollar
is +0.49 at 89.37
Gold is +0.30 at 406.50
Crude Oil is -0.18 at
31.70
Volume is 710,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 924,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2060 | Up Vol 542 |
| Declining | 1063 | Down Vol 105 |
| Ratio | 1.98 | 4.80 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2106 | Up Vol 683 |
| Declining | 901 | Down Vol 189 |
| Ratio | 2.31 | 3.57 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Home Depot [HD|HD],
+2.93% at 34.03, General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.64% at 30.22, Altria [MO|MO],
+1.64% at 53.10, and Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.50% at 53.00.
Stocks in the news:
IKON Office Solutions
(
IKN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has agreed to sell parts of its Canadian and U.S. leasing business to a unit of
GE Commercial Finance
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $1.5 billion. IKON shares are trading 16%
higher.
The Wall Street Journal
reported that Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will no longer sell drugs or
medical devices to companies that buy its products from other sources. This new
policy is a move in an attempt to stop counterfeiters.
Ciena
(
CIEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a
better-than-expected fourth-quarter net loss of $115 million. Revenue rose to
$70.6 million, up 14%. It said its first-quarter sales may be lower than
previous forecasts.
Decode Genetics
(
DCGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 8% after
announcing it had discovered two more genes linked to obesity. Decode is working
with Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on obesity research.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com