Here’s Why PRCS Shot Up 10%
The market
is down despite a flurry of positive indicators. Jobless
claims fell to a three-year low as the four-week average of initial claims
dropped 10,000 to 358,750. Durable goods shot up 3.3% in October showing
strength in the US manufacturing sector. A pension fund relief plan that was
supposed to allow businesses to defer billions of dollars of contribution over
the next couple of years was blocked in the Senate. JP Morgan
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has agreed to purchased Citigroup’s
(
C |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) Electronic Financial Services
unit for $380 million. The unit provides government-issued benefits payments and
prepaid stored-value cards.
| Dow | -0.30% | 9734.87 |
| S&P 500 | -0.12% | 1052.30 |
| Nasdaq | -0.21% | 1938.11 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Amex Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.38%, Gold and Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.49%, Oil Index
(
$OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.95%, and Internet
(
$ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.38%.
Weak today are Airline [XAL.X|XAL.X]
-1.72%, Retail
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.17% and Biotechs
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-1.01%.
Economic news releases for
today included higher durable orders at 3.3% and initial claims that fell to
351K. Personal income went up 0.4%, and personal spending was flat at
0%. Revised Michigan sentiment came in at 93.7, the Chicago PMI was at 64.1, the
help wanted index went up to 37 and new home sales were down to 1105K,
10-year Notes are -90
at 113 070.
The dollar
is -0.88 at 90.69.
Gold is +0.64 at 397.50.
Crude Oil is -0.06 at
32.86.
Volume is 595,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 877,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1736 | Up Vol 316 |
| Declining | 1310 | Down Vol 229 |
| Ratio | 1.31 | 1.38 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1336 | Up Vol 434 |
| Declining | 1656 | Down Vol 398 |
| Ratio | 1.23 | 1.10 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Du Pont
(
DD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.54% at 41.16, ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.92% at 36.18, Altria [MO|MO],
+0.83% at 51.21, and Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.77% at 32.50.
Stocks in the news:
TechData
(
TECD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
opened strong after reporting a 15% increase in revenue despite lower profits.
Net income fell to $26.5 million on sales of $4.16 billion. The company expects
fourth-quarter earnings to be in the range of 50 cents to 55 cents and sales to
reach $4.5 billion.
Praecis
(
PRCS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
received FDA approval for Plenasix, used to treat advanced symptomatic prostate
cancer. Shares rallied up 10% on the news.
Starbucks
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported sales of $387 million for the month of November 2003, with same-store
sales up 11%.
HP
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will begin
manufacturing its own brand of flat-screen TV. It will offer large LCD and
Plasma TVs to the crowded consumer market.
If you have any comments or
questions, please feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com