Economic Expansion To Continue?
Greg Che is on vacation this week and will return
on Monday, July 16. In his absence, this column will be written by TradersWire’s
Duke Heberlein.
The U.S. retail sales report results announced Friday reflected a rise of
consumer purchases of electronics and cars, inferring that Statesiders may be
continuing to open their pocketbooks just enough to keep the American economy
moving forward.
Commerce Department numbers showed a rise of 0.2 percent in retail sales for
June, dropping from the 0.4 increase the previous month and the 1.4 percent jump
in April. Sales of automobiles accounted for the increase in the overall
numbers, which would have reflected a drop of 0.2% if auto sales were removed
from the equation.
Consumer sentiment also seemed to improve, as the University of Michigan
consumer sentiment report climbed to 93.7 for July, up 1.1 from the same
report’s results for June.
The seemingly positive economic numbers led to a carryover from Thursday’s
rally following a sluggish open. The indices opened in the hole but managed to
climb significantly off their lows before giving a little back into the close.
The Dow ended the session up 57.10 at 10536.09, the Nasdaq printed a gain of
8.71 to finish at 2084.45 and the S&P 500 rose 7.38 to close at 1215.52.
Expedia
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expansion breakout in Friday’s trading to a new high. EXPD was the top point
gainer on the day, adding 4.71 to end at 48.70.
The biotechs exhibited strength across the board, with the Biotech Index
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gaining 17.39 to 532.93. Invitrogen
(
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multi-day drop, shooting higher by 4.08 to 62.75. ImClone Pharmaceuticals
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rose 3.89 to 45.50, and Protein Design Labs
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recent drop, moving up 2.43 to 64, down from an intraday high of 66.36.
Qualcomm
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PowerRating) was possibly aided by the news of China getting
the 2008 Olympics, and rose 6 points off its intraday low. QCOM finished the
session up 2.05 to 61.76.
Finally, the semiconductors tried to join in the rally, but fizzled into the
close. The best performers in this area were Broadcom
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gained 1.38 to 43.04 and Alpha Industries
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PowerRating), which followed
through from Thursday’s expansion of range, gaining 0.50 to 33.47.