Housing Starts At 21 Year High, But What Are Homebuilders Doing?
Stocks are trading
modestly lower this mid-day. Â Mixed economic data as well as Fed
Chairman Greenspan’s speech pushed equities lower after yesterday’s pop. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average is back below the psychological 10,800 mark.Â
Before the Senate Banking Committee, Chairman Greenspan said “the economy seems
to have entered 2005 expanding at a reasonably good pace, with inflation and
inflation expectation well anchored.”
Industrial Production for January came in flat
versus an expected rise of 0.3%. Capacity Utilization came in at 79% or
slightly below consensus of 79.3%. Housing starts in January jumped by
4.7% to a record 2.159 million pace. This was well above consensus
estimates of a 1.925 million rate and represents the highest level of
construction in 21-years. Building permits also came in above consensus at
an annual pace of 2.105 million. Despite this, homebuilders are only managing a
gain of 0.29% as represented by the HGX.
Strong sectors are: Energy
(
$DXE.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.71%Â
Oil
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.55%Â
Weak sectors are:Â Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.60%Â Â Disk
Drives
(
$DDX.X |
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PowerRating) -1.46%Â Â Computer Hardware
(
$HWI.X |
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PowerRating) -1.42%Â
| Dow | 10,796.61 | |
| S&P 500 | 1205.99 | |
| Nasdaq | 2082.01 |
The dollar is -+0.40 at
84.00
Crude Oil is -0.16 at
47.10
Gold is +1.10 to 424.10
870 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1228 | Up Vol 251 |
| Declining | 1894 | Down Vol 361 |
| 1.54 | 1.44 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1282 | Up Vol 307 |
| Declining | 1682 | Down Vol 545 |
| 1.31 | 1.77 |
Stocks in the News
Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
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News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings of 17 cents a share, 1 cent better than expectations.
Network Appliance
(
NTAP |
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PowerRating) gave disappointing guidance for the current
quarter.
Audible Inc
(
ADBL |
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PowerRating)Â announced strong earnings, but revenue was
only $10 million.
Abercrombie & Fitch
(
ANF |
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PowerRating) reported earnings $0.02 ahead of estimates.
Nordstrom
(
JWN |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) reported earnings 1 cent better than expected.
Â
Â
Brice Wightman