Drug Makers In Focus…Here’s Why

Stocks ended mixed
today. 

Ahead of the President’s day long weekend, equities drifted for most of
the session as more disappointing economic data continue to feed rate hike
fears.  However things turned around during the final hour of trading.

Producer prices in January rose 0.3% as expected.  However the Core PPI,
which strips out food and energy, rose 0.8% versus estimates of  0.2%. Next
Tuesday, we will get the CPI numbers which should shed more light on the
inflation picture.  Lastly the University of Michigan’s Sentiment index
fell to a reading of 94.2 versus consensus of 95.5.

It was a comeback day for drug makers. Shares of Pfizer were up by nearly 7%.
The FDA voted 31-1 to keep the company’s Celebrex on the market.  The FDA
also voted 17-13 to keep Pfizer’s Bextra drug on the market.  Merck jumped
13% today today after the FDA voted 17-15 to bring Vioxx back to the market. All
three drugs were linked to increased heart problems in certain patients.

Strong sectors are: Pharmaceuticals
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+2.44%  Energy
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+2.06%
Oil
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+1.82%

Weak sectors are:  Disk Drives
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-2.32%  Broker/Dearlers
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-1.65%   Banks
 
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-1.45% 

Dow 10,785.22
S&P 500 1201.59
Nasdaq 2058.62

The dollar was 
+0.04 at 83.52

Crude Oil was +0.79 at
49.01

Gold was +0.40 to 426.70

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.51 billion on the NYSE and
1.60 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1219 Up Vol 719
Declining 2110 Down Vol 772
1.73 1.07
Nasdaq
Advancing 1358 Up Vol  604
Declining 1711 Down Vol 934
1.31 1.12

Stocks in the News

Intuit Inc
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reported 82 cents
per share earnings, exceeding consensus by six cents.

Akamai Technologies
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  announced revenue of $57.6 million.
Analysts were expecting $55.9 million.

Qwest is considering to submit a new offer for MCI Inc
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after
studying Verizon agreement.

NETGEAR Inc
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released higher than expected earnings of 23
cents a share, but revenue did not meet expectations. 

NVIDIA Corp
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announced earnings of 27 cents a share. It was
five cents better than expected.

 

 

 

Brice Wightman