Dow Milestone, Plus, Watch This IPO
Stocks rose
Thursday with the Dow closing above 10,000
for the first time since May 24, 2002, and strength
across the board. The Nasdaq gained 2%, with investors expecting low interest
rates and low inflation. Semis were strong as Taiwan Semiconductor
(
TWN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
TriQuint
(
TQNT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Atmel
(
ATML |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) all guided higher. Weekly jobless
claims rose for the second week in a row to 378,000. Retail sales for November
rose by 0.9%. Natural gas futures hit a 52-week high of $7 before pulling back.
Home Deport
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has completed its $1 billion buyback program and its
board approved purchase of another $1 billion. Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
predicted a favorable environment in its IT division for 2004. AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said it would start providing Internet telephone services next year.
In the biggest IPO of the year,
China Life’s
(
LFC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) $3 billion IPO will be priced between $15.35 – $18.80 with interest
at ten times supply. Chinese IPOs that have done well include China Unicom
(
CHU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
in June 2000 and this week’s Ctrip
(
CTRP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
| Dow | +86.30 |
10008.16 |
| S&P 500 | +12.16 |
1071.21 |
| Nasdaq | +37.67 |
1942.32 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Disk Drive
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.72%, Airlines
[XAL.X|XAL.X] +2.80%, Amex Gold Bugs [HUI.X|HUI.X]
+2.50%, Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.26%,
Weak today were Oil Service
Sector
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.79, Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.26%, .
Economic news releases included
a 0.2% increase in export prices, import prices also rose by 0.3%. Initial
claims rose to 378,000, retail sales was up 0.9%. Auto sales increased by
0.4%.
10-year Notes was +230
at 113 195
The dollar
was +0.01 at 88.89
Gold was -.16 at 404.60
Crude Oil was +0.14 at
31.99
Volume was 1,431,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,804,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was Positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2297 | Up Vol 1213 |
| Declining | 954 | Down Vol 197 |
| Ratio | 2.41 | 6.16 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2335 | Up Vol 1547 |
| Declining | 846 | Down Vol 225 |
| Ratio | 2.76 | 6.88 |
Top Dow stocks were:
Home Depot [HD|HD],
+2.93% at 34.03, General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.64% at 30.22, Altria [MO|MO],
+1.64% at 53.10, and Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.50% at 53.00.
Stocks in the news:
After the close, Adobe Systems
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted 32 cents per share earnings, and reported record revenue of $358.6
million, both above analysts’ estimates. The company also reaffirmed guidance
for 2004. Verity
(
VRTY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported 0.09 (pro forma, 0.12), in line
with estimates; revenues beat estimates.
IKON Office Solutions
(
IKN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has agreed to sell its Canadian and US leasing business to a unit of GE
Commercial Finance
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $1.5 billion. IKON shares traded 19% higher.
Ciena
(
CIEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a
better-than-expected fourth-quarter net loss of $115 million. Revenue rose to
$70.6 million, up 14%. It said its first-quarter sales may be lower than
previous forecasts.
Decode Genetics
(
DCGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 6% after
announcing it had discovered two more genes linked to obesity. Decode is working
with Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on obesity research.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com