It’s Black Friday…Here’s Why That’s Good
Stocks were
higher Friday in light holiday trading in a shortened session.
The day after Thanksgiving is referred to
“Black Friday” as it’s the day many retailers go into the black for the year.
The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas accounts for as much as 40% of
annual revenue for many retailers. Investors are anxious for signs of a robust
holiday shopping season. US retailers are expecting stronger sales this year due
to a rebounding economy, however, a poll by Consumer Federation of America
showed 34% would spend less this year than in 2002. The dollar fell to a new
record low against the euro on concerns of the impact of the expanding US
account deficit and possible international trade wars.
| Dow | +0.05% | 9785.20 |
| S&P 500 | -0.01% | 1059.37 |
| Nasdaq | +0.35% | 1960.26 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Amex Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.39%, Gold and Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.82%, Airline [XAL.X|XAL.X] +1.25%,
Semis
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.17%, and Internet
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+.94%.
Weak today are
Pharmaceuticals
(
$DGL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.70%., Oil Service Sector
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.23%, and Oil Index
(
$OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.21%.
Economic news releases were not
available at the time of writing.
10-year Notes were -210
at 112 130.
The dollar
was -0.53 at 90.30.
Gold was +0.57 at
396.80.
Crude Oil was unchg at
32.86.
Volume was 480,000,000
on the NYSE, and 679,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1824 | Up Vol 275 |
| Declining | 1194 | Down Vol 192 |
| Ratio | 1.63 | 1.45 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1746 | Up Vol 501 |
| Declining | 1225 | Down Vol 168 |
| Ratio | 1.59 | 3.41 |
Top Dow stocks were:
Microsoft [MSFT|MSFT],
+1.02% at 25.71, McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.94% at 25.63, Caterpillar [CAT|CAT],
+0.86% at 76.05, and IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.70% at 90.54.
Stocks in the news:
Subway announced it
would replace Pepsi
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) with Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) as its
primary soft-drink brand in its 20,000 restaurants. Coke has about 68% of the
domestic fountain business while Pepsi has 22%, according to Beverage Digest.
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
halted several clinical trials of its anemia drug because of adverse reactions.
A larger-than-expected number of patients developed blood clots in the trials of
Procrit, prompting stoppage of the trials.
The introduction of the generic
version of Wellbutrin manufactured by Eon Labs
(
ELABS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was delayed
after GlaxoSmithKline
(
GSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) won a temporary restraining order. Sales
of Wellbutrin for GSK were $1.23 billion for the first nine months of 2003.
Shares of Schering-Plough
(
SGP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose more than 5% after CEO Fred Hassan stated he has purchased more
than 4.6 million worth of company stock. Currently, the company is struggling
with falling sales, lack of new products, and inquiry into its sales and
marketing practices.
If you have any comments or
questions, please feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com