Here’s What Investors Think Of The Economy
Stocks
opened strong as the weak dollar bounced back from its lows.
The Dow moved up over 100 points in the first hour of trading amid investor
optimism, which surged to a 20-month high in November according to an UBS
report. Sixty percent of those surveyed believe the economy is in a sustained
recovery.
Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced
it had fired CFO Mike Sears for improperly recruiting a US Air Force official
and then lying about it. Delta Airlines
(
DAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 4% after
announcing Chairman and CEO Leo Mullin would retire on May 1, 2004. Gerald
Grinstein will become CEO and John Smith, Jr., will become chairman. Sprint
(
FON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is cutting 2,000 jobs as part of an effort to reduce costs.
| Dow | +1.04% | 9730.87 |
| S&P 500 | +1.21% | 1047.10 |
| Nasdaq | +1.75% | 1927.11 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Disk Drive
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.51%, Internet
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.04%, Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.99%, Hardware
(
$GHA.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.65%.
Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs [HUI.X|HUI.X] -3.21%, Gold and
Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.20% and Oil Service Sector
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.42%
No Economic news releases for
today.
10-year Notes are -155
at 113 115.
The dollar
is +0.93 at 91.68.
Gold is +0.11 at 394.80
Crude Oil is -0.06 at
32.86.
Volume is 655,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 989,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is Positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2283 | Up Vol 365 |
| Declining | 797 | Down Vol 67 |
| Ratio | 2.93 | 5.4 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2150 | Up Vol 552 |
| Declining | 828 | Down Vol 126 |
| Ratio | 2.55 | 4.40 |
Top Dow stocks are:
McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+2.62% at 25.63, Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
2.34% at 33.06, Wal-Mart [WMT|WMT],
+2.09% at 55.96, and Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +55.98% at 36.37
Stocks in the news:
Campbell’s Soup
(
CPB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported first-quarter earnings of $211 million on sales of $1.91 billion. It
attributed the higher revenue to stronger demand for its line of ready-to-serve
soups. It expects to earn $1.58 a share for the year.
Fairchild Semiconductors
(
FCS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded by Lehman Brothers to overweight. The price target of
the stock was raised to $27 from $20 on relative valuation, accelerating revenue
growth.
Time Warner
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
has greed to sell the Music unit to the Bronfman-led investor group for $2.6
billion. The deal includes rights to legendary recordings by artists such as
Frank Sinatra and Led Zeppelin.
Cablevision Systems
(
CVC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced it
would raise New York City rates for cable television by 3.2%, citing a
13% increase in programming costs.
If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com