Hedge Funds Are Big Business. Here’s How Big
Stocks were lower Friday,
making the indices down for the week. A
disappointing response to the Intel news, higher oil, a weak dollar and rising
rates shook investor confidence.. International trade for January widened to
$58.3 billion, worse than expected. The December number was revised to $55.7
from 56.3 billion.
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised the mid point of their revenue forecast,
saying they see Q1 revenue between $9.2 billion and $9.4 billion, at the high
end of expectations. The company also sees gross margins slightly higher, at 57%
vs. the 55% expected.
KMart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded to a ‘buy’ at UBS, who gave a $160
price target. UBS also upgraded Qualcomm
(
QCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), to a ‘buy’ from
‘neutral.’
According to Forbes, these are the top 5 richest people in the world:
Bill Gates                      Â
$46.5 billion
Warren Buffett                Â
$44.0 billion
Lakshmi Mittal                Â
$25.0 billion
Carlos Slim Helu             Â
$23.8 billion
Prince Alaweed Bin Talal  $23.7 billion
A CSFB study shows that hedge funds account for 40-50% of the NYSE
volume and 70% of the convertible bond volume. The study also found they
generate $25 billion in investment banking fees annually. There are about 7500
hedge funds today, up from an estimated 2000 in 1990.
Strong sectors were: Natural Gas Â
(
$XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.69%Â Â Transpotation
(
$TRANX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.63% Â Â Â
Oil
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.56%
Weak sectors were:Â Semis
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.85%Â Â Computer Technology
(
$XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.55%Â Â Â
Networking Â
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.40%Â Â Â Â Â
| Dow | -77.15 | 10,774.36 |
| Nasdaq | -18.12 | 2041.60 |
| S&P 500 | -9.17 | 1200.08 |
The dollar was -0.15 at
81.47
Crude Oil was +0.86 at
55.12
Gold was +4.30 at 445.60
and 1.79 billion on the Nasdaq
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1317 | Up Vol 524 |
| Declining | 2009 | Down Vol 885 |
| 1.52 | 1.68 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1407 | Up Vol 516 |
| Declining | 1700 | Down Vol 1240 |
| 1.20 | 2.40 |
Stocks in the News
Sports Authority
(
TSA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04 but guided lower.
Tech Data
(
TECD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.07 and guided lower.
Aeropostale
(
ARO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02, ex-items.
eResearch
(
ERES |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lowered guidance to 12%-18% below the low end of the
range.
Mylan
(
MYL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its full year forecast.
Brice Wightman