High Anxiety
Earnings pre-announcement worries, a big week of crucial economic numbers,
soaring oil prices, and a Greenspan speech scheduled for Tuesday were enough to
keep anxiety levels high throughout Monday’s session. The Nasdaq fell from the
open, drifted lower throughout the day, and then sold off into the close to
finish off by 2.7%. The Dow and S&P 500 were also weaker, easing 0.5% and
0.7% respectively.
Despite the dour mood on the Nasdaq, it did manage to continue to hold on to
most of the past couple week’s gains, and it also constructively remained above
both its 50- and 200-day moving averages.
Volume Monday was about flat with Friday’s levels as 1.27 billion shares
changed hands on the Nasdaq. NYSE volume eased about 4% from Friday’s level,
with 755 million shares trading.
Following last week’s Procter & Gamble
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warnings, Citrix Sytems
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would be half of what the Street expected. That sent Citrix tumbling 18
15/16 to 22 1/4 and raised concerns that other tech companies may have
dark surprises as well.
"Is this a bull market or a bear market? Whatever your answer, you’re
probably half right. About 50% of stocks appear to be in uptrends, and 50% are
in downtrends," said Paul Desmond, President, Lowry’s Research Reports.
"Further, a summary of our measurements of internal market strength
suggests there may not be a definitive change from the current stalemate any
time in the immediate future," he added.
According to preliminary numbers, the Nasdaq fell 106.92 to 3967.92, the Dow
fell 49.85 to 10,564.92, and the S&P 500 eased 10.95 to 1446.00.
Top-performing sectors were oil services
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silver
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On the downside were biotechs
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down 6.1%, and Internets
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In the optical networking arena, Corning
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quarter earnings for the quarter ending June 30 will likely be 78 to 80 cents
per share, topping First Call/Thomson Financial estimates of 69 cents per share.
Corning rocketed on the news, adding 18 to 230.
JDS Uniphase
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also had a strong day, gaining 5 to 115 9/16.
Dow winners included Phillip Morris
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up 2.3%, and Exxon Mobil
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Dow losers were AT&T
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and Home Depot
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Looking ahead, the May retail sales numbers are due out Tuesday at 8:30 AM.
Estimates look for sales to have remained flat, and the recent weakness in
retail stocks suggests a market-friendly number.