Greenspan’s Oil Comments–Will This Actually Happen?
Stocks are flat Thursday ahead of Friday’s jobs
number. Retail sales were generally strong, especially teen
retailers.
Jobless claims for the week of 4/30 rose 11K to 333K. The 4-week
moving average is now 321,500.
Greenspan said that oil prices at current levels may spur conservation
much like was seen in the 1970s.
IBM is reducing
its workforce by 10,000 to 13,000. Job cuts will be mostly in Europe. The
company will take a $1.3 to $1.7 billion restructuring charge.
Lazard begins trading today on the NYSE–symbol LAZ.. The company
priced its IPO at $25; the stock is trading near that level now.
Tomorrow morning, look for the jobs number–175K expected.
Strong sectors are: Â Homebuilders
(
$HGX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.28%Â Â
Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.27%Â Â Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.21%
Weak sectors are:Â Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.94%Â
Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.90%
| Dow | +2.00 | 10,386.64 |
| Nasdaq | +2.45 | 1964.68 |
| S&P 500 | +1.72 | 1177.37 |
The dollar is -0.01 at
83.99
Crude Oil is +0.12 at
50.25
Gold is -1.40 at 428
713 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1882 | Up Vol 400 |
| Declining | 1161 | Down Vol 266 |
| 1.62 | 1.50 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1526 | Up Vol 382 |
| Declining | 1238 | Down Vol 275 |
| 1.23 | 1.38 |
Stocks in the News
Wal-Mart’s
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) April same store sales rose 1%, meeting forecast,
and also forecast a 2 percent to 4 percent increase in May
same-store sales. Sales at Sam’s Club rose 4.9%.
Merck
(
MRK |
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News |
PowerRating) hosts a 9 AM ET teleconference.
Ann Taylor
(
ANN |
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PowerRating) guided lower
Abercrombie & Fitch’s
(
ANF |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) April sales rose +31%, much more than
expected.
Wet Seal’s
(
WTSLA |
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News |
PowerRating) April sales rose 35.7%, also much more than
expected.
JC Penney’s Â
(
JCP |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) April sales rose +3.6% but warned for Q2
and FY.
Cost Plus
(
CPWM |
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PowerRating) said that Q1 earnings would miss, citing
weaker-than-expected traffic.
Blockbuster
(
BBI |
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PowerRating) posted a quarterly loss.
Starbucks’
(
SBUX |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) same store sales rose +9% in April.
Brice Wightman