Cyclicals Are Showing Signs Of A Rebound
Stocks are
flat on this first anniversary of the
beginning of the Iraq war, as oil hit a new 13-year high on concerns over summer
gasoline supplies. The Dow is up 0.4% for
the week with cyclicals showing signs of rebound. Many companies have raised
estimates this week, including Masco
(
MAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Stanley Works
(
SWK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Fortune Brands
(
FO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and FedEx
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). The February
Semiconductor book-to-bill ratio was 1.14 below consensus.
The dollar traded lower against
the euro once again after reports of bomb threat to Washington DC schools.
Adobe Systems
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose 8% after reporting earnings that more than doubled at $123 million with
revenue rising 43% to $423 million. The company also raised annual growth target
to 15% with earnings at $1.43 a share.
Marathon Oil
(
MRO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced a deal to purchase a 38% stake in Ashland
(
ASH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $2.93
billion. MRO would own Ashland’s the entire US refining, transportation and
marketing operations. Ashland would also pay $94 million to make its business
more compatible with Marathon’s.
| Dow | -11.04 |
10284.56 |
| S&P 500 |
-2.50 | 1120.30 |
| Nasdaq | +2.30 | 1964.95 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.90%, Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.36%,
Telecoms
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.29%, and Techs
(
TXX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.27%, and
Utility
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.15%.
Weak today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.27%, and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.08%.
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes are -40 at
117 040
The dollar
is +0.44 at 88.59
Gold is -0.90 at 410.40
Crude oil is +0.18 at
38.11
The euro
is +1.33 at 123.44
Volume is 631,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 795,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1497 | Up Vol 272 |
| Declining | 1540 | Down Vol 317 |
| Ratio | 1.03 | 1.11 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1494 | Up Vol 379 |
| Declining | 1383 | Down Vol 337 |
| Ratio | 1.08 | 1.11 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.75% at 26.02,
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.49% at 35.33, Intl Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.23% at 41.96
and Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.22% at 33.10.
Stocks in the news:
Solectron
(
SLR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a narrower
loss of $68 million on revenue of $2.89 billion. The 2 penny loss was in line
with estimates but analysts were disappointed with lower gross margin of 4.5%
Tektronix
(
TEK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
third-quarter net loss of $43.6 million vs the $2 million net-loss the same
period last year with revenue up at $243.5 million.
Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) recalled half a million bottles of
Dasani water sold in Britain after detecting a higher-than-permitted level of
the chemical bromate.
Nike
(
NKE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted
earnings of $200.3 million, beating estimates by a penny with revenue up 21% at
$2.9 billion.