Greenspan Has These Two Concerns…
Stocks tanked despite a large drop in initial claims.
For the third consecutive week, initial
weekly claims fell by 25,000 to 315,000–the lowest level since 2000.
Productivity levels met market expectations of 3.5% while labor costs rose by
0.5%. Fed chairman Alan Greenspan warned that
a rising budget deficit and trade protectionism pose great threats to the
current economic recovery.
The Bank of England
raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.25% over inflation concerns. The
ECB met in Helsinki and left interest rates intact at 2% with President JC
Trichet citing worries over rising oil prices. The Nasdaq dropped below its
200-day ma for the third time in five trading sessions. Treasuries are weak with
increased steady selling pressure on continued interest rate hike concerns.
Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported same-store sales up 4.4% for the month of April. WMT expects a 5%
increase for May. Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) provided similar numbers, with
same-store sales up 4.9% for April. TGT expects a 5% increase for May.
| Dow | -91.48 |
10219.50 |
| S&P 500 |
-10.25 |
1111.35 |
| Nasdaq | -25.05 |
1932.16 |
Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.88%; Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.73%; and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.60%.
Economic news releases today
included initial claims that fell by 20,000 to 315,000 and productivity levels
that met consensus at 3.5%.
10-year Notes are -80 at
109 260
The dollar
is +0.50 at 90.00
Gold is down 5.20 at
388.60
Crude Oil is -0.17 at
39.40
Volume is 688,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 819,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
463 | Up Vol 67 |
| Declining | 2724 | Down Vol 576 |
| Ratio | 5.91 | 8.59 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
615 | Up Vol 197 |
| Declining |
2343 | Down Vol 604 |
| Ratio | 3.83 | 3.06 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.15% at 54.76; Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.44% at 48.02; and Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.03% at 36.65,
Stocks in the news:
Citibank
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said the SEC is
investigating its accounting practices in Argentina for 2001 and 2002.
THQ
(
THQI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of $5.4
million, beating analysts’ estimates by 2 cents with revenue rising to $123
million.
King Pharmaceuticals
(
KG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a net
loss of $111.1 million, well below analysts’ estimates with revenue down 14% to
$290.6 million. Wachovia downgraded KG to “market perform” on the news.
General Dynamic’s
(
GD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Electric Boat
subsidiary was awarded a $229 million contract by the US Navy for submarine work
.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com
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