Does The Market Have Legs?
Stocks opened up Tuesday and
accelerated higher early on in the trading session, only to shed most of the
gains in the last hour of trading.
The Nasdaq Composite moved higher in
the session closing up 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrials gained 1.1% as the
broader markets all posted gains, but well off the highs of the session.
Internals for the broader market were
positive. NYSE Advancers led decliners by 1874 to 1254, ditto for the Nasdaq
with advancers beating decliners slightly 1615 to 1599. Not a big volume day to say the
least.
The question on the Street is does
this market have legs? With volume low, many analysts feel that this rally is a
short-term anomaly and will require some “event” that will ignite this
market to continue to move higher.
The Semiconductor Index
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SOX |
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closed flat as it attempted to rally above its 50-day moving average, only to
fall short at the end of the session.
Individual stocks moving higher were
Dr. Reddys Laboratories
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PowerRating), as it gained 17.3% after reporting Q1 numbers
beating Wall Street’s estimates. The company’s profits skyrocketed 173%
Healthnet
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of its losses from yesterday after being downgraded by Salomon Smith Barney. The
stock tacked on 11.2%.
Adminstaff
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on news that Lehman Brothers initiated coverage on the stock this morning with a
Strong Buy rating.
National Semiconductor
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NSM |
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up closing 4.0% higher holding on to some gains.
Memberworks
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after reporting Q4 revenues increased 34%..
A number of biotechnology stocks moved
higher, Biogen
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Therapeutics
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Sectors gaining Tuesday were the
Pharmaceutical Index
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DRG |
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period moving average one sector showing strength.
The Healthcare Index
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gained 2.0% and the Forest and Paper Index
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FPX |
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Oil services stock Transocean Sedco
Forex
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RIG |
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PowerRating) slipped 11.3% after warning on full-year earnings that will fall
short of analysts’ consensus due to a decrease in drilling and slower recovery
in a variety of markets.
Penton Media
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PowerRating) fell 10.0%
after being downgraded by Merrill Lynch.
Mercury Computer Systems
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PowerRating)
shares got hammered after the company warned of short-term earnings weakness due
to a slowdown in domestic defense spending. The stock close lower 35.0%
After reporting earnings which beat
the Street, Macrovision
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PowerRating) lost 21.5%
Retailer Rent-A-Center
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lost 25.1% on the company’s announcement that the company cut its 2001 profit
forecast.
Sectors in the red were the Oil
Services Index
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OSX |
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PowerRating) which fell 4.1% and the Gold and Silver Index
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PowerRating),
which closed off fractionally 0.1%.