Dividend Cut!
Stocks fell
Friday, with the Dow down 3 1/2% for the
week and the Nasdaq down 6% for the week — the worst weekly drop in 17 months.
The Michigan Consumer
Sentiment report revealed that consumer confidence fell for the third straight
month. The revised Q2 GDP report showed that the economy grew by a
faster-than-expected pace. Upgrades in Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), 3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Lam
Research
(
LRCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) failed to inspire end-of-quarter buying as the indices are
looking at their third straight day of declines. J.P. Morgan upgraded INTC from
“underweight” to “neutral” based on “robust” PC demand. Bank of America upgraded
3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) citing potential in its LCD film business. CSFB upgraded
chip maker Lam Research
(
LRCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) from “neutral” to “outperform” based on
valuation.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 30.88 at 9313.08. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
slid 6.42 at 996.85. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 25.17 at 1792.07.
The day’s leading sectors were
Utilities
(
$UTX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.12%, Chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.18%, and Banks
(
$BIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.39%.
Weak today were Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.73%, Gold & Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.12%,
Internet Commerce
(
$ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -3.22%, Biotechs
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.75%, and
Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.47%.
In economic news, Chain
Deflator for Q2 rose by 1% versus expectations of a 0.9% rise. The final
reading of the GDP for Q2 came in at 3.3% versus estimates of 3.1%.
Lastly the revised Michigan Consumer Sentiment for September came in at
87.7 or below expectations of 88.5.
The 10-year U.S. Note
was +230 at 113 265.
The dollar was +0.04 at
93.80.
Gold was -4.70 at 381.30.
Crude Oil was -0.09 at
28.16.
Volume was
1,440,097,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,837,498,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative,
with NYSE declining issues over advancing issues by 1.68 and down over up volume
by 2.54; Nasdaq declining issues over advancing issues at 2.86, and down volume
over up volume at 9.15.
Top Dow stocks were:
3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.84% at 143.45, Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.03 at 28.21, Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.14 at 19.40, AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.47 at 22.41, and Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.46 at 50.83.
Stocks in the news:
Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its
dividend for the first time ever. EK closed down .75 at 21.40.
Specialty drug maker Human
Genome Sciences
(
HGSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 6% after the company
announced disappointing results of its experimental drug, Repifermin, used to
treat venous ulcers. In a Phase IIb trial, the drug failed to meet its goals.
Communications giant
Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 0.36 after it announced that its
camera phones will not be on the market before Christmas. In spite of this, J.P.
Morgan upgraded the stock from “neutral” to “overweight”.
Dow component 3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose 1.29% after Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upgraded the diversified
manufacturing company form “neutral” to “buy.” B of A based the upgrade on the
growth potential in the company’s liquid crystal display film business. They
believe that 3M’s LCD business could account for more than a third of revenues
and earnings by 2007.
Antiviral drug maker
Trimeris
(
TRMS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 11% after UBS Piper Jaffray
downgraded the stock from “market perform” to “under perform” as prescriptions
for the company’s HIV drug Fuzeon have fallen nearly 50% during the last three
months.
Research In Motion
(
RIMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gained 4% after the maker of the popular Blackberry wireless devices
reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Excluding litigation charges,
the company earned 10 cents a share or 2 cents better than estimates. Revenues
jumped 71% to $125.7 million.
Monday, look for earnings from
Walgreen
(
WAG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Topps
(
TOPP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
If you have any comments or
questions, please feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com