Looking To Wednesday, These Earnings Plus This Report Are In Focus

Stocks were in rally mode, closing on their highs.
The Nasdaq closed over 2000–for the first time since April 12–and
above the 200-day moving average.. The rally
was ignited late in the session by the release of a Treasury Department report
which found no manipulation of the yuan–the Chinese currency..

The

PPI for April rose +0.6%, more than expected; ex -food/energy, +0.2%. The core
PPI was 0.3%, and +2.6% year/year. The reading rekindled inflation fears among
traders.  Housing starts for April rose +11% to an annualized rate of 1.97
million units; building permits rose 5.3%.

An OPEC report said oil demand may fall. Separately, Saudi Oil
Minister Ali al-Naimi said that very high oil prices are not in OPEC’s best
interest and that remaining oil reserves are abundant.

After the close, Hewlett Packard
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beat by a penny and
revenues ($21.6 billion) also beat slightly.  Applied Materials
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also beat by a penny on slightly higher revenues. Abercrombie & Fitch
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beat by 0.03.

Home Depot
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beat and reaffirmed sales and profit growth
targets. The retail sector is strong on the news.

JC Penney
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beat by 0.02 but lowered Q2 guidance.

Staples
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beat by a penny.

Agilent (A)
missed by a penny and guided lower for Q3.

Saks
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missed by 0.04. Q1 comp sales rose 1.9%.

Deere
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beat by 0.30. Revenues were $6.62 billion.

Boise Cascade will delay its IPO. The IPO market has been weak of
late: both Warner Music (WMG) and Lazard (LAZ) are both trading
below their offering prices.

The US Senate passed a $295 billion highway bill.

Larry Ellison said Oracle
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was ready to consider other
large acquisitions. Siebel
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was been in the rumor mill as a
potential takeover target.

Happy Birthday NYSE!  213 years old today.

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 ET, look for the CPI; consensus is 0.4% with
core at 0.2%.

Strong sectors were:  Gold
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+2.24%   
Natural Gas 

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+2.34%     Retail 
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+1.64%  

Weak sectors were:    Biotech
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-0.13%    

Dow +77.52 10,329.51
Nasdaq +9.67 2004.10
S&P 500 +8.07 1173.74

The dollar was +0.06 at
86.24

Crude Oil was +0.50 at
50.67

Gold was -1.50 at 418.80

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.46 billion on the NYSE and
1.55 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2085 Up Vol 1263
Declining 1184 Down Vol 456
1.76 2.76
Nasdaq
Advancing 1664 Up Vol 829
Declining 1424 Down Vol 642
1.16 1.29

Stocks in the News

TJX
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missed by a penny.

Barnes & Noble
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beat by a penny.

Hershey
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was downgraded at Bear Stearns.

SonicWall (SNWL)
beat by 0.04 and guided Q2 higher.

Warren Buffet
said he owns 630,000 shares of Proctor & Gamble (PG).

BJ’s Wholesale
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beat by a penny.

ExxonMobil
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was upgraded to ‘buy’ at AG Edwards.

The New York Times
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said it will begin charging for some of
its online content.

Taser
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will restate its 2004 financial statements.

Brice Wightman

 

 

 

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