It’s Constructive

After yesterday’s action, today was tame, with
the indices in fairly narrow trading ranges for the session.

The Dow
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lost 15.91 to close at 10098.38
; the
Nasdaq
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rose 6.99 to 2053.83; the S&P 500
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slid 3.34 to 1167.01.

Brokers
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were strong, with Merrill
Lynch
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up 1.75, and Charles Schwab
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, up .35 to 15.84, and
approaching a two-month high. Lehman Brothers
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closed up 1.37 to 69.52,
and Goldman Sachs gained 1.50.

Oil
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and oil service
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were weak, amid concerns that production cuts may not be enough to effectively
reduce supplies. Warmer-than-usual temperatures and a possibility that the OPEC
agreement may not be as strong as originally thought also pressured the energy
sector. Exxon Mobil
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fell 1.55 to 37.33 and Halliburton lost 1.15 to
20.85.

National Semiconductor
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reported Q2 loss
of .26/share, better than expected. After a brief halt, trading resumed and the
shares went higher, closing at 31.64, down .98.

In a sign the economy is improving, jobless
claims dropped to 475,000, and factory orders rose 7.1%. Jobless claims
made a nine-year high in the last week of September.

In a $2 billion stock deal that is also the
biggest get-together of biotech companies, Millennium Pharmaceuticals
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agreed to buy Cor Theraputics
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. COR shareholders will get .9873 shares
of new MLNM stock. MLNM
fell on the news, closing at 29.56, down 5.89.

In the smallest rise since 1990, retail sales
rose a less-than-expected 2%, in what could be a tough holiday season for the
industry. The Gap
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fell after reporting sales were off 25% in November,
and warning of Q4 losses greater than those in the third quarter. GPS rose .62
to 14.20. Best Buy
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reported same-store sales up 1.6% and announced
they would beat earnings expectations. BBY fell 3.83 to 69.48.

BJ’s Wholesale
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fell after reporting
below-estimated November sales. BJS closed at 29.25, down 1.87.

Hotel and casino stocks, hit hard after the 9/11
events, have rallied since then, and several have made two-month highs,
including:
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,
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,
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, and
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.

Yahoo!
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, after more than doubling
since Sept. 27, made another two-month high (on triple average volume), to close
at 18.95, up 1.89.

Intel
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and Sun Microsystems
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hold their mid-quarter updates after the close.