Caught Between A Rock And A Hard Place
On Tuesday, earning warnings dragged
the the markets lower through out the day. The markets attempted to rally at
2:00 PM EST only to close mixed for the session.
The Dow Jones Industrials closed
fractionally lower by 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite closed 0.6% higher after
trading lower during the morning session and rallying after lunch to hold on to
gains.
According to a trader friend of mine,
trading was very choppy to say the least as traders were covering their shorts
and putting on new bets prior to the Federal Reserve Board’s announcement due out
on Wednesday.
Traders appear to be
hesitant as to what they want the Federal Reserve Board to do with respect to a
25-basis-point cut or a 50-basis-point cut. It seems now traders feel a 50-basis-point cut can imply that the economy is worse off then expected. It seems we are
between a rock and a hard place in our consensus of what the Federal Reserve
Board should do.
Among individual stocks leading the way on
the NYSE was Input Output
(
IO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) which tacked on 15.6%.
Admistaff Inc.
(
ASF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) followed
closely behind as the provider of comprehensive Personnel Management Systems
rose 15.8%
Brocade Communications
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed up 6.2 % after the company announced the launch of its Professional
Services Provider program (PSP). The program is designed to train and authorize
professional services companies in four core areas of SAN design and
implementation.
Supply chain company Manhattan
Associates
(
MANH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 20.2%.
Among the sectors showing strength were
the Oil Services Index
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which gained 2.2%, and the Chemical Index
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) which rose 1.0%
Fractionally higher was the Forest
& Paper Index
(
$FPP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) as it tacked on 0.9%.
Stocks showing weakness today was
Merrill Lynch & Co.
(
MER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) after the brokerage giant issued a profit
warning before Tuesday’s open. The company lost 11.3%.
Also losing ground was Cheap Tickets
Inc.
(
CTIX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) after the company warned that it would miss analysts’
expectations of 22 cents according to Thomson Financial/First Call. Cheap
Tickets sees Q2 earning between 4 to 5 cents. The stock plunged 22.4%
Information technology firm New
Horizons Worldwide Inc.
(
NEWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed lower by 23.0% after the company
announced that it would be laying off 7% of its workforce and lowered Q2 revenue
and earnings forecasts.
Other losers today were Verisign Inc.
(
VRSN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) which lost 5.6% and CDW Computer Centers Inc.
(
CDWC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) — the direct
marketer of multi-brand computer and related technology products closed lower by
8.9%
The Securities Broker Dealer Index
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lead the sector decline with the help of Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). The index lost
2.1%
The Retail Index
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost
0.9%, as did the Bank Index
(
$BKX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) which was lower by 0.8%
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