Has Your Home Price Risen This Much?
Stocks were higher
Thursday on generally good economic data and lower oil prices.
The CPI came in at 0.1%; core CPI rose 0.1%, indicating inflation is in
check. Traders are hoping that the benign numbers may not rush to push rates
higher. The Philly Fed report was generally optimistic, although it
missed expectations (13.4 vs. 28.5) and the number was the lowest since July
2003. Jobless claims for the week of 9/4 rose 16,000 to 333,000; the 4
week moving average is now 317,000.
The Dow Transports and Utilities made new 52-week
highs intraday. Today’s rally was on lower volume.
The Federal Reserve said that US Household
wealth rose to new highs in Q2, from $45.3 trillion to 45.9 trillion.
The National Association of Realtors said
that median home prices grew 9.1% in Q2 vs the same period in 2003. The median
home price was $183,000; this means that half the homes cost more than that and
half cost less than that. Las Vegas home values gained the most, rising over
52%.
OPEC is meeting today with energy leaders
to talk about boosting capacity.
Daily average trades at Charles Schwab
(
SCH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 11% month to month in July. Total client assets, however, rose
1%.
What is the damage to the oil and gas facilities in the Gulf? That’s the
question energy traders are asking.
There has been a run on plywood in the face of the
recent hurricanes. Georgia Pacific
(
GP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reports that it shipped 3
million sheets of plywood to Florida in the last month — double the average
volume. Plants are working 24/7 to meet the demand. GP has not increased the
price of plywood.
After the close, Tektronics
(
TEK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat
by 0.13. Spectrasite
(
SSI |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was mentioned in Business Week with
a $60 price target.
Tomorrow is Quadruple Witching Friday.
| Dow | +13.13 | 10244.49 |
| S&P 500 | +3.13 | 1123.50 |
| Nasdaq | +7.56 | 1904.08 |
Strong today were: REITs
(
RMS.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.85%, Homebuilders
(
HGX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.30%, Airlines
(
XAL.X.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.12%.
Weak were: Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.42%.
10-year Notes were +230 at 113 020.
The dollar
was -0.34 at 88.79.
Gold was +0.30 at 404.40.
Crude Oil was +0.49 at 44.00.
Volume was 1.11 billion
on the NYSE and 1.31 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2416 | Up Vol 697 |
| Declining | 871 | Down Vol 337 |
| Ratio | 2.77 | 2.06 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1872 | Up Vol 758 |
| Declining | 1166 | Down Vol 508 |
| Ratio | 1.60 | 1.49 |
Stocks in the News
Nortel
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned for Q3.
Qualcomm
(
QCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) — CSFB lowered its rating to neutral.
Omnivision
(
OVTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) — CFO John Rossi resigned.
Protein Design Labs
(
PDLI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will develop a new asthma drug with
Roche.
3Com
(
COMS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will report today.
Tektronics
(
TEK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will also report.
Guidant’s
(
GDT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) new stent got FDA approval for marketing.
Brice Wightman