Look Who Shook Hands With MSFT Today
Stocks
rallied to a strong close after the news of a strong jobs number.
The S&P 500
(
SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed up 7 of the past 8 trading sessions. The
Nasdaq gained 5% this week with strength in the Semis. The NYSE is launching a
US 100 Index ETF
(
NY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to rival Nasdaq’s QQQ. UBS initiated coverage on
Kmart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) with a buy, and a $54 price target. The analyst liked
its positive cash flow and assets numbers.
Computer maker Gateway
(
GTW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced plans to close all of its 188 retail stores and is cutting 2,500 jobs.
Analyst Andrew Neff at Bears Stearns upgraded on stock on the news.
Sierra Wireless
(
SWIR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
upped its first-quarter forecast as it now expects sales to be at $40 million
with earnings of $3 million. XM Satellite Radio
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose sharply
after reporting a 1.68 million user base with 320,000 new net subscribers or a
230% rise over the same period a year ago.
The judge in the Tyco
(
TYC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
trial declared a mistrial, citing outside pressure on one of the jurors.
The euro tumbled more than two
cents after US jobs data showed a 308,000 March growth rate, the biggest gain
since 2000 and well above the 103,000 expected by Wall Street. Treasuries fell
sharply, lifting yields to two-month highs with the dollar notching gains too.
Homebuilders and Mortgage Lenders fell sharply as interest rates surged. January
payroll numbers grew by 159,000 for February, revised from 21,000 to show a gain
of 46,000.
Global chip sales rose 31% to
$15.58 billion in February. Companies that benefited from surging demand include
Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Novellus
(
NOVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), KLA
Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Transmeta
(
TMTA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). The European
Semiconductor Industry Association expects chip sales to grow at least 20% this
year with tighter capacity resulting in higher prices.
| Dow | +97.26 |
10460.52 |
| S&P 500 |
+9.63 | 1141.80 |
| Nasdaq | +42.16 |
2057.17 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +6.09%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.73%,
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.59%, and Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.82%.
Weak today are Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.99% and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.66%.
Economic news releases today
included strong nonfarm payrolls that blew past estimates at 308,000. The
unemployment rate rose by 0.1% to 5.7% while the average workweek fell by 0.1 to
33.7 and hourly edged up 0.1%%.
10-year Notes are -1300
at 112 300
The dollar
is +1.32 at 88.85
Gold is -6.30 at 422.50
Crude oil is +0.12 at
33.87
Euro is -2.18 at 121.10
Volume is 1,603,000,000
on the NYSE, and 2,171,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1726 | Up Vol 1095 |
| Declining | 1566 | Down Vol 495 |
| Ratio | 1.13 | 2.27 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
2217 | Up Vol 1808 |
| Declining |
989 | Down Vol 308 |
| Ratio | 2.44 | 6.01 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.49% at
35.33, Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.63% at 39.70, Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.79 at 25.78, and Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.38% at 79.31
Stocks in the news:
Continental Airlines
(
CAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose
on the news of a 10.7% increase in traffic with a 4.5% increase in capacity.
Load factor was up 4.2% to 75.8%.
Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it would
cut 3,300 jobs, and its earnings for the third-quarter will be
lower-than-expected. Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has agreed to pay SUNW $1.6
billion to settle litigation and antitrust issues.
Merrill Lynch raised Qualcomm’s
(
QCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
2004-2005 earnings estimates to $1.90 EPS and its price target of $65 to $75.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com