Important Week For Brokers; Here’s Why
Stocks
are higher on light volume ahead of the Fed meeting.
Analysts are
expecting interest rates to be left unchanged. Staffing firm Manpower’s
(
MAN |
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PowerRating)
second-quarter survey said job prospects are at the strongest level since 2001.
The Wall Street Journal reported 28% of US employers plan to add
workers in the second quarter. In February, housing starts dropped 4%, to 1.855
million.
Lehman Brothers
(
LEH |
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PowerRating)
reported earnings that more than doubled, with net income rising to $670 million
from $301 million a year ago. Net revenue reached $3.14 billion, 84% higher than
a year ago. The company’s equity trading was up 46% from the previous quarter
with 70% of the revenue derived from capital markets operations. Other
investment banks such as Bear Stearns
(
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PowerRating), Morgan Stanley
(
MWD |
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and Goldman Sachs
(
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PowerRating) are expected to report within the next week.
| Dow | +43.12 |
10146.75 |
| S&P 500 |
+3.00 | 1107.49 |
| Nasdaq | -0.65 | 1938.55 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Hardware
(
$HWI.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) +1.60%, Internet
(
$ECM.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.68%,
Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.04%, and Amex Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.03%.
Weak today are Transports
(
$TRANX.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) -1.13%, and Software
(
$GSO.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.94%.
Economic news releases today
included lower housing starts at 1.855 million and building permits that rose to
1.903 million.
10-year Notes are -45 at
117 005
The dollar
is -0.18 at 89.05
Gold is +2.90 at 402.50
Crude Oil is +0.18 at
37.62
The euro
is +0.14 at 122.39
Volume is 670,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 901,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSEÂ | Issues | Â |
| Advancing | 1810 | Up Vol      336 |
| Declining | 1286 | Down Vol  298 |
| Ratio | 1.49 | 1.14 |
| Nasdaq |  |  |
| Advancing | 1319 | Up Vol     366 |
| Declining | 1622 | Dow Vol   466 |
| Ratio | 1.23 | 1.27 |
Top Dow stocks are:
3M
(
MMM |
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PowerRating), +4.92% at 78.55,
Caterpillar
(
CAT |
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PowerRating), +1.67% at 75.22, Home Depot
(
HD |
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PowerRating), +1.32% at
35.86, and Du Pont
(
DD |
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PowerRating), +1.12% at 41.46.
Stocks in the news:
Tenet Healthcare
(
THC |
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News |
PowerRating) reported a
loss of $954 million for the fourth-quarter. This includes the previously
announced one-time charge of $1.4 billion to write down the sale of 27
hospitals. Revenue fell 9% to $3.49 billion vs. the same period a year ago.
CSFB downgraded the entire
defense sector: Companies such as Northrop Grumman
(
NOC |
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PowerRating), General
Dynamics
(
GD |
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PowerRating), and Lockheed
(
LMT |
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PowerRating) are all lower today.
General Mills
(
GIS |
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PowerRating) posted
earnings of $242 million that included restructuring and closing costs of $3
million. Net sales rose to $2.7 billion from $2.65 billion a year ago. GIS
attributed the disappointing numbers to higher supply-chain costs and soft unit
volumes.
3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its
earnings target for the first quarter to 86 cents from previous estimates of 80
cents and full-year earnings of $3.52 per share. 3M expects revenue to exceed
the 10% with strength in its industrial and graphic-based businesses.