Coming Soon To A Wal-Mart Near You…
Stocks
are flat after news of a higher-than-expected PPI and a lackluster
labor environment. Initial claims rose by 13,000 to 331,000, with the four-week
moving average at 335,750, the lowest in three years. Producer price index rose
by 0.7% vs. the 0.3% consensus, on higher energy and dairy costs. Dairy prices
showed a whopping 10.4% jump, the largest since 1946. According to a survey from
the AAA, the average price for regular gasoline hit an all-time high of $1.95 a
gallon.
Oil hit $41/bbl. intraday; the intraday high in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait
was 41.15. This is the 3rd consecutive day of above $40 oil.
Dunkin’ Donuts will open stores inside 10 Wal-Mart locations. Dunkin’ Donuts
is owned by Allied Domecq Plc.
Retailer Wal-Mart
(
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reported earnings of $2.2 billion, beating Wall Street expectations by a penny.
Net sales rose 14.2% to $64.8 billion with US same-store sales up 6.4%. Its
competitor Target
(
TGT |
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up 12.3% at $11.59 billion.
| Dow | +0.14 | 10045.44 |
| S&P 500 | +2.46 | 1099.74 |
| Nasdaq | +7.87 | 1933.41 |
Strong today: Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
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PowerRating) +2.55%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
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PowerRating) +1.53%, Healthcare
Providers
(
RXH.X |
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PowerRating) +1.28%, Telecom
(
XTC.X |
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PowerRating) +1.21%.
Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
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PowerRating) -1.33%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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PowerRating) -1.31%,
Economic news releases today:
PPI prices rose by a surprising 0.7%, core PPI (excluding food and energy costs)
met expectations and was up 0.2%. Initial claims rose by 13,000 to 331,000.
Retail sales fell by a larger-than-expected 0.5%; excluding auto sales, retails
sales fell by 0.1%.
10-year Notes are -135
at 108 045
The dollar
is +0.91 at 92.35
Gold is -3.10 at 374.60
Crude Oil is -0.36 at
40.30
Volume is 669,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 756,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1750 | Up Vol 383 |
| Declining | 1416 | Down Vol 264 |
| Ratio | 1.24 | 1.45 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1591 | Up Vol 473 |
| Declining | 1333 | Down Vol 261 |
| Ratio | 1.20 | 1.81 |
Top Dow stocks are:
SBC Communications
(
SBC |
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PowerRating)
+1.67% at 24.95, JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
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PowerRating) +1.34% at 36.23, Du Pont
(
DD |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) +1.13% at 42.16 Home Depot
(
HD |
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PowerRating), +1.13% at 33.90.
Stocks in the news:
Pfizer
(
PFE |
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PowerRating) has
settled with Florida’s AG and agreed to pay $430 million for the illegal
marketing of its epilepsy drug Neurotin.
MaMa.com
(
MAMA |
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PowerRating)
rose after reporting a profit of $1.3 million with revenue that rose 135% to
$4.2 million.
Panera Bread
(
PNRA |
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PowerRating) reported
earnings of $9.5 million on revenue of $129.9 million but guided the Street
lower on higher commodity costs and forecast an EPS of 21 cents for next
quarter.
Elan
(
ELN |
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News |
PowerRating)
reported a net loss of 0.17 a share, 10 cents better than estimates, with
revenue falling 29% to $159.0 million.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com