Dow And Nasdaq Close Up For The Week
Stocks were
lower Friday but the Dow and Nasdaq were up for the week;
the Dow rose 0.25%, the Nasdaq
rose 1.01% and the S&P 500 fell 0.16%.
The
first quarter is coming to an end with consumer staples and financials
outperforming other sectors. For this week, investors rotated money out of
Biotechs into semis.
THQ
(
THQI |
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PowerRating)
upped quarterly numbers from strength in its MX Unleashed game and other catalog
products. It now expects to earn 12 cents on revenue of $110 million. For the
full year, revenue is expected to reach $110 million with earnings of 89 cents.
EchoStar Communications
(
DISH |
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PowerRating) reported disappointing earnings of $3
million on a 14% increase in revenue that hit $1.51 billion. Its subscriber base
rose 15% to 9.425 million users.
Major pension funds are attempting to oust the
CEO of Safeway
(
SWY |
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PowerRating) to try and iprove the governance and performance of the company. Orasure
(
OSUR |
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PowerRating)
received FDA approval of rapid oral HIV test. The FDA
required it to submit more data for another product — an oral fluid drug-detection system.
Monthly income figures rose
twice as fast as savings, with personal income increasing by 0.4% and personal
spending at 2%. Michigan Sentiment numbers were revised higher to 95.8.
Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
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PowerRating) is
paying $576 million for a European comparison site Kelkoo in a deal which
allows both companies to expand their global outreach and online marketing
services. Infospace
(
INSP |
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PowerRating) is acquiring rival Switchboard
(
SWBD |
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PowerRating)
for $160 million, a 28% premium over Thursday’s closing price. The combined
company will account for 25% of online yellow-pages searches.
Lehman Brothers upgraded the
oil and gas sectors on continued increases in demand forecasts and a steady rise
in prices. Analyst Thomas Driscoll also raised his 2004 oil price outlook for
West Texas Intermediate crude to $32 a barrel and 2005 forecasts to $28 from
$23. His natural gas forecasts were 25 cents per BTU for 2004 and he added
another 50 cents to 2005 forecasts at $4.75 BTUs.
| Dow | -5.85 | 10212.97 |
| S&P 500 |
-1.16 | 1108.03 |
| Nasdaq | -7.15 | 1960.02 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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PowerRating) +2.41%, Internet
(
ECM.X |
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PowerRating) +1.68%,
Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.36% and Energy
(
DXE.X |
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PowerRating)
+1.11%.
Weak today were Semis
(
SOX.X |
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PowerRating)
-1.24%, and REITs
(
DJR.X |
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PowerRating) -1.11%.
Economic news releases today
included better-than-expected personal income of +0.4%and lower personal
spending of +0.2%. Michigan sentiment was revised higher to 95.8.
The dollar
was -0.11 at 88.79
Gold was +4.78 at 421.39
Crude Oil was +0.09 at
35.73
Volume was
1,320,489,000
on the NYSE, and 1,580,372,000
on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1791 | Up Vol 732 |
| Declining | 1498 | Down Vol 576 |
| Ratio | 1.19 |
1.27 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1597 | Up Vol 762 |
| Declining |
1524 | Down Vol 798 |
| Ratio | 1.04 |
1.04 |
Stocks in the news:
Continental Airlines
(
CAL |
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PowerRating)
decided to raise fuel surcharge fees by 50% as a result of much higher fuel
costs. New surcharges will cost passengers $15 for a one-way ticket or $30 for a
roundtrip ticket on top of various taxes. Last year, CAL’s fuel bill exceeded $1
billion.
SI International
(
SINT |
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PowerRating)
shot up 20% on its $800 million contract with the Air Force Space Command and an
upgrade from Jefferies.
E-Trade
(
ET |
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PowerRating) will replace
FleetBoston Financial
(
FBF |
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PowerRating) on the S&P 500 list starting April due to
the merger with Bank of America.
Grocer Albertson’s
(
ABS |
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PowerRating)
will purchase the Shaws division of J Sainsbury for $2.5 billion. The move will
enable Sainsbury to invest more in the UK and better compete against Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
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News |
PowerRating) and Morrison.