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