If You Follow The January Barometer, You May Find This Interesting
Stocks are higher on several good earnings reports.
GE posted quarterly profits which rose 18%, beating by a penny at
0.51. A year ago the company earned 0.45.
United Technologies
(
UTX |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) beat the street, reporting 1.29 and
backed its 10-15% growth forecast this year.
Fortune Brands
(
FO |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.08 and targets double digit earnings
in 2005.
Thus far for the quarter, 69 companies in the S&P 500 (66%) have reported.
Overall, companies have come in 5.1% above estimates.
The University of Michigan sentiment index fell to 95.8 in January from 97.1
in December.
Crude oil is near 7-week highs; the airline index is down 21% this month.
If you’re following the January Barometer, the Nasdaq is down 5.5% for
the first 3 weeks of January. Interestingly, in 2003 the Nasdaq fell 8% for the
first 3 weeks but the index shot up 50% that year.
Strong sectors are: Gold
(
HUI.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.37%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
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News |
PowerRating)
+2.23%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
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PowerRating) +1.34%.
Weak sectors are: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.91%, Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.31%%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.34%,
| Dow | +8.35 | 10,479.82 |
| S&P 500 | +1.47 | 1176.88 |
| Nasdaq | +8.11 | 2053.99 |
The dollar is -0.39 at
83.45
Crude Oil is +1.24 at
48.55
Gold is +4.50 to 425.80
950 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1958 | Up Vol 426 |
| Declining | 1167 | Down Vol 267 |
| 1.67 | 1.59 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1660 | Up Vol 615 |
| Declining | 1230 | Down Vol 279 |
| 1.34 | 2.20 |
Stocks in the News
Lam Research (LRCX)
beat by 0.06. Q2 income soared 10-fold.
Harmonic (HLIT)
beat by 0.04 and guided higher.
Scientific Atlanta (SFA)
beat by a penny but was light on revenues.
KLA-Tencor (KLAC)
beat by 0.02 on revenues that also beat estimates.
Xilinx (XLNX)
beat by a penny.
CheckFree (CKFR)
beat by 005.
Brice Wightman
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