Earnings Key To Market
The expectation of a tough earnings
season, combined with new terror worries,
sent the market mostly lower on fairly quiet trading today. While the Dow closed
slightly in the green, the Nasdaq stayed red all day, as did the Semiconductor
Index
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which was also the weakest sector. J.P. Morgan downgraded
several stocks in the sector before the open today. Today’s action has the SOX
showing virtually the same high for the past three days, near the 50%
retracement of the 8/27 – 9/27 downdraft.
The Transports were the strongest sector, up 1.26%.
Here are the numbers:
Dow
9347.90, +3.73
Nasdaq
1696.30, -7.10
NYSE Advance/Decline 1479/1578
Nasdaq Advance/Decline 1774/1825
Dow New
highs/lows
45/34
Nasdaq New highs/lows 34/47
Over a third of the companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report Q3
earnings this week, with IBM slated to report after the close tomorrow. Novellus
(
NVLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will be reporting later today.
Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q3 profit fell 4%, but beat the $1.25/share
forecast by three cents at $1.28/share. BAC rose 2.59 to 55.60.
Fannie Mae
(
FNM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said Q3 earnings rose 23%, and beat the street by a
penny. FNM closed at 78.95, up 1.52.
Bethlehem Steel
(
BS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) filed for
bankruptcy protection. The company has lost
money for five straight quarters, and is the most recent in a disturbing trend:
Since 1998, over 20 US steel companies have sought bankruptcy protection.
Rambus was up over 20% on rumors that the company will meet its numbers
tomorrow when it reports. RMBS closed at 11.62.
Detection companies continue to do well, with Cepheid
(
CPHD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up .28 at
8.06 after making a high over 9.00, and Nanogen up .51at 9.12.
Advance PCS
(
ADVP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 5.71 to 79.82 after making a 52-week high on
more than double volume.
In active issues, Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost .77 to 16.18, Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
dropped .50 to 14.44, and Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 1.60 to 57.98.