Here’s What Greenspan Is Saying
Stocks
are higher on Greenspan’s testimonial before the
House Financial Services Committee. He
said that the US economy had turned the corner, with expected annual growth of
4.5% to 5.0%. The Fed can remain patient before raising interest rates but
Greenspan is troubled by immense government spending that created the massive
budget deficit. He added that the lack of a conservative fiscal policy could
create problems “in the relatively near term;” it may push up market rates, and
slow down growth unless a convincing plan is in place. On the issue of the
declining dollar, he saw no material adverse effects.
Cable operator Comcast
(
CMCSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
made a bid to buy Walt Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $66 billion. Terms of the
deal included an exchange of 0.78 of a Comcast class A share for each Disney
Share, putting Disney at $26.47 a share, or a 10% premium. DIS reported stronger
earnings of $688 million on revenue of $8.55 billion.
| Dow | +56.04 | 10669.77 |
| S&P 500 |
+6.07 | 1151.63 |
| Nasdaq | +6.05 | 2081.35 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.40%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.22%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.54%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.30%,
and Technology
(
TXX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.12%,
Weak today are Utilities
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.25%, and Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.15%.
No Economic news releases.
10-year Notes are +235
at 114 215
The dollar
is -0.65 at 85.39
Gold is +4.10 at 411.10
Crude Oil is +0.21 at
33.22
Volume is 750,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,102,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is Positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1950 | Up Vol 553 |
| Declining | 1162 | Down Vol 181 |
| Ratio | 1.72 | 3.05 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Disney [DIS|DIS],
+14.32% at 27.58, Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.02% at 36.97, Hewlett Packard
[HPQ|HPQ], +3.43% at
24.94, and Caterpillar [CAT|CAT]
+1.82% at 77.99
Stocks in the news:
Aluminum maker Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received an
upgrade from Prudential to ‘overweight’ amid expectations of higher aluminum
prices.
Micromuse
(
MUSEE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
preliminary earnings that beat Wall Street estimates with its shares up 24%.
The company reported earnings of 2 cents a share on revenue of $37 million in
sales.
Priceline
(
PCLN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of
$2.2 million compared to a loss of $7.4 million a year ago. Revenue fell to
$180 million from $197 million a year ago. PCLN is up 16% on the news.
Soft drink maker Coca-Coca
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $927 million, above analyst estimates. Operating revenue
was also higher at $5.18 billion. A lower-than-expected tax rate and a favorable
currency exchange rate helped the higher earnings.
Garmin
(
GRMN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of
$54.6 million on higher revenue of $170.1 million. it expects to earn 36 cents
on revenue of $138 million for the next quarter. GRMN is down 10%.