Here’s Why Money Is Leaving This Sector

With tech leading, stocks are on the retreat.
The REIT sector continued yesterday’s downtrend as a result of fears of interest
rate hikes. The world’s largest cell phone maker Nokia
(
NOK |
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guided
the Street lower and now expects to earn 21 cents for the next quarter. Sales
fell 2% vs. a previous forecast of a 5% increase.

Kelloggs
(
K |
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said its
first-quarter profits will be 30% higher as a result of strong sales growth and
better currency exchange. It now forecasts earnings of 52 cents a share.
Midway Games

(
MWY |
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PowerRating)
rose after the company said it expects higher revenue
of $18 million for the quarter, and a smaller loss than initially anticipated on
stronger-than-expected sales of The Suffering video game.

Dow
-44.30

10513.20
S&P 500
-7.58
1143.35
Nasdaq
-25.50

2053.63

The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines

(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.29%, Transport
(
$TRANX |
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PowerRating)
+0.89%
Amex Gold Bugs

(
HUI.X |
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+0.83%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+0.80%

Weak today are REITs
(
DJR.X |
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News |
PowerRating)

-4.37%, and Semis
(
SOX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.81%,

No Economic news releases
today.

10-year Notes are +115
at 112 245

The dollar
is -0.55 at 89.03

Gold is +3.60 at 419.00

Crude Oil is +0.01 at
33.87

Volume is 660,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 905,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
1033 Up Vol
185
Declining 2114 Down Vol 456
Ratio 2.10 2.50
Nasdaq
Advancing
852 Up Vol 256
Declining
2123 Down Vol 612
Ratio 2.49 2.44

Top Dow stocks are:

Kodak
(
EK |
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PowerRating)
, +0.95% at
25.44, Caterpillar
(
CAT |
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PowerRating)
+0.75% at 83.01, Alcoa
(
AA |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+0.64% at 36.13 and Coca-Cola
(
KO |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.37% at 50.77.

Stocks in the news:

Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
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PowerRating)
was downgraded to
underweight by JP Morgan due to its relationship with Nokia and the high level
of estimates given.

Omnicell
(
OMCL |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will miss previous first-quarter
earnings forecasts and now expects to earn 7 cents on sales of $27.5 million.

Tupperware
(
TUP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
raised its first-quarter earnings
outlook on reduced costs. It now expects to earn 22 cents with sales rising to
high single-digit levels.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com