Down Big After Hours; Plus, Huge Volume In This Sector

January 7, 2004
Brice Wightman

Stocks were
mixed Wednesday, with the Nasdaq making a 29-month high.
Â Investors were waiting for earnings to begin,
with Alcoa expected to report tomorrow.Â Intel gained 3% as Sanford
Bernstein raised its rating to outperform, while Cisco made a three-year high,
closing at 25.56. December’s market leaders –basic industry and energy
— were weaker as money rotated into tech. Bulletin board stocks had three times
normal volume, indicating increasing speculation.

General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has no plans to make dual power-train
system hybrid cars, despite Toyota’s
(
TM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) success with its Prius. GM said it doesn’t make environmental or economical sense to make
such cars and it would focus instead on hybrid SUVs and light trucks. Retailer Circuit City
(
CC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 10% after reporting a 2% drop in
December same-store sales, with sales of LCD plasma TVs offsetting weaker areas of home audio and video game hardware. Duke
Energy
(
DUK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is expected to write off $3.3 billion in merchant
energy business; sell plants in the Southeast US; end its joint venture with ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating); and pull out
of European and Australian markets. Investors pushed Duke up on its
commitment to retain its current dividend of $1.10 per share.

Former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow may be negotiating a plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors.
A federal judge rejected a plea agreement from his wife Lea.Â Former Enron
Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey will be arraigned tomorrow. New York State
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer may file a lawsuit against former NYSE Chairman
Richard Grasso to force him to give back part of his $140 million compensation
package.

Dow	-9.70	10529.03
S&P 500	+2.62	1126.29
Nasdaq	+20.31	2077.68

Economic news releases included
Factory orders dropping 1.4%, and ISM numbers at 58.6.

Gold was -1.24 at
420.20.

Crude Oil was -0.08 at
33.62.

Volume was
1,704,932,000
on the NYSE, and 2,275,427,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE	Issues
Advancing	1759	Up Vol 936
Declining	1559	Down Vol 694
Ratio	1.12	1.34
Nasdaq
Advancing	1874	Up Vol 1273
Declining	1335	Down Vol 941
Ratio	1.40	1.35

Stocks in the news:

Brookstone
(
BKST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 9% after reporting a 12%
increase for November and December same-store sales. It also upped
its earnings outlook by 10 cents to earn at least $1.25 a share.

Guitar Center
(
GTRC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 12% after reporting a
18% increase in revenue for the fourth quarter. Revenue was strong at $396
million, up from $335 the year-ago period.

Darden
(
DRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) restaurants lost more than 8% after
announcing a 12% drop in sales at its Red Lobster franchise. Red Lobster’s
President Dick Rivera resigned. Chairman and CEO Joe Lee will assume responsibilities
until a new president can be named.

bricew@tradingmarkets.com

Down Big After Hours; Plus, Huge Volume In This Sector

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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