If You’re Buying Oil Service Stocks, Consider This


Stocks are flat

despite a big increase in the non-manufacturing index to 68.4
–the
highest since November 2000–indicating continued growth in the economy. Oil
prices climbed higher with US light crude trading near 13-year highs on security
concerns in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Banc of America cut its rating on the
offshore drilling sector to underweight, the Oil Service HOLDR
(
OIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is down
3.35%. According to the AAA average, US retail gasoline prices jumped to a
record $1.844 a gallon.

Gary Kaltbaum
has more on this topic today.

A federal judge denied Martha
Stewart’s motion for a new trial and she is expected to be sentenced in June.
With sales, profits and stock price rising,
Procter and Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is rewarding its 90,000 employees with
two free days off.

Bank of America upgraded Dell Computer
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
to a “buy” from “neutral” and raised its price target from $35 to $40. DELL is trading up 1%.

Charter One Financial
(
CF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

announced that Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland’s Citizens Financial Group
agreed to acquire it for $10.5 billion in cash. The deal will add $43 billion in
assets and 61 retail banking branches to the group’s existing 1,400 branches
across 13 states.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
(
MGM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
delayed its annual meeting, citing a $5 billion takeover bid by
Sony

(
SNE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
.

Dow
-13.21

10304.50
S&P 500
+0.45
1120.25
Nasdaq +8.05
1958.66

The day’s leading sectors are
Hardware

(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.03%; Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.59%;
Telecoms

(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.19%; and Healthcare Provider
(
RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+1.08%

Weak today are Oil Services

(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.57%, and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.89%

Economic news releases today
include a much stronger-than-expected non-manufacturing index of 68.4.

10-year Notes are -10 at
110 085

The dollar
is -0.50 at 89.55

Gold is unch at 391.80

Crude Oil is +0.20 at
38.95

Volume is 689,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 789,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
1678 Up Vol 402
Declining 1406 Down Vol 248
Ratio 1.18 1.64
Nasdaq
Advancing
1694 Up Vol 496
Declining
1232 Down Vol 234
Ratio 1.37 2.13

Top Dow stocks are:

Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+2.03% at 20.20 Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.13% at 43.70, Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+0.72% at 23.10 Procter & Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.67% at 107.02.

Stocks in the news:

Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

brought back its former executive E. Neville Isdell to succeed Doug Daft as its
new CEO.

Cypress Semiconductor

(
CY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
expects second-quarter earnings of 23 cents on a slightly
higher gross margin and stood by its revenue target of $262 million.

Taser International
(
TASR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after announcing two new orders from law enforcement agencies
in Texas and Ohio worth $500,000.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals
(
LGND |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted a net loss of $13.1 million, or 18 cents a share, missing
analysts’ consensus by 12 cents. Revenue rose to $36.6 million and the company
stood by its previous revenue target of $250 million, with EPS of at least 12
cents.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com