Here’s An Interesting Sentiment Figure…

Stocks are off their highs on good reports from
several companies.

Lehman Bros.
(
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beat by 0.27. The company had record investment
banking business. Best Buy
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beat by a penny at 0.45 for Q3.
Margins were 5.8%.

Homebuilders are making new highs after Lennar reported better than
expected results and raised guidance.

Sprint and Nextel will merge in a $35 billion deal, creating
the 3rd largest wireless provider.

Las Vegas Sands IPO (LVS) debuted at $29; it is trading at 44.95. It
owns the Venetian, the Sands Expo and the Macau Casino in China; 1 billion
people live within an hour of this casino.

Investor’s Intelligence Bulls are 62.1%, the highest level since
January 1987.

The EIA said crude fell inventories 100,000 barrels,  distillates were
unchanged, but the expectations were for a build of 1 million barrels.

The October trade flow numbers are in and they’re disappointing: $48 billion
vs.a $63-65 billion estimate.

Remember: options and futures expire on Friday.

Strong sectors were: Gold
(
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+1.94%, Oil
(
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+1.21%, Natural Gas
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+0.48%.

Weak sectors are: Biotech
(
BTK.X |
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-1.44%, Airlines
(
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-0.67%, Computer Tech
(
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-0.54%.

Dow -21.95 10,654.50
S&P 500 -1.89 1,201.49
Nasdaq -4.31 2,155.53

The dollar is -0.79 at
81.53

Crude Oil is +1.80 at
44.25

Gold is +4.20 to 440.50

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 771 million on the NYSE and
1.22 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is mixed.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1818 Up Vol 410
Declining 1343 Down Vol 299
Ratio 1.35 1.37
Nasdaq
Advancing 1463 Up Vol 531
Declining 1484 Down Vol 613
Ratio 1.01 1.15

Stocks in the News

Dupont
(
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was upgraded at Smith Barney

Lennar
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beat estimates and raised 2005 estimates.

Carl Icahn has become the largest shareholder in Blockbuster
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.

Today in History

1939  “Gone
With The Wind” premiered in Atlanta

Brice Wightman