Chip Giant Guides Higher After The Close
Stocks rose Monday — the highest
close of the year for the Dow — as
investors expect the Fed will not raise rates when they meet tomorrow. The Fed
has promised to keep rates low for a “considerable period” and the wording of
the statement — to be released around 2:15 PM EST tomorrow — could be telling.
Volume was light. The dollar hit another record low against the euro, and oil
rose as the Northeast was hit by a weekend blizzard.
President
Bush signed a 10-year $400 billion Medicare reform bill into law, expanding roles for
private health plans.
Forrester Research predicted that online
shoppers will spend more money online than ever this holiday season. Sales are
expected to reach $12 billion due to convenience, steep deep discounts, and
promotional tools such as free shipping. A separate report from Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said that US economic expansion has reached a self-sustaining stage and labor
demand is expected to pick up in the next few quarters.
| Dow | +102.59 |
9965.27 |
| S&P 500 | +7 | 1069.30 |
| Nasdaq | +11.03 |
1948.85 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.77%, Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.54%, Natural Gas
$XNG.X|$XNG.X] +1.38%, Chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.31%, and Banks
(
BKX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.30%.
Weak today were Health Providers
[$RXH.X|$RXH.X] -1.77%,
Internet
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.06%, and
Telecom
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 1.4%.
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes were -130 at 111
225.
The dollar was -0.48 at 88.71
Gold was +0.53 at 406.90
Crude Oil was +1.29 at 32.10.
Volume was
1,193,583,000 on the
NYSE, and 1,576,949,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2157 | Up Vol 738 |
| Declining | 1088 | Down Vol 438 |
| Ratio | 1.98 | 1.68 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1675 | Up Vol 820 |
| Declining | 1485 | Down Vol 713 |
| Ratio | 1.12 | 1.15 |
Stocks in the news:
After the close, Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its guidance for the
fourth quarter, saying it expects to earn between .25 and .27, which includes a
.07 extraordinary gain from sale of Micron shares.
Jet Blue
(
JBLU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained over 7% after Merrill Lynch upgraded the
stock to a “Buy.”
Lowes
(
LOW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced it would buy back
$1 billion of common stock through private transactions. Currently there are
$786 million outstanding shares. The company also declared a quarterly dividend
of 3
cents per share, payable January 30, 2004.
Freddie Mac
(
FRE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
named Richard Syron to become the company’s third CEO. Syron previously held
positions at the American Stock Exchange, the Boston Federal Reserve and a
technology firm.
Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin
(
LMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was given antitrust clearance for its $1.8 billion acquisition of
Titan Corp
(
TTN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of
2004, subject to Titan stockholder approval.
McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported that monthly US
sales jumped 10.2%, with eight straight month of gains.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com