Lots Of Action After The Close

Stocks were
slightly higher Wednesday
. General
Motors

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and Ford Motors
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are offering more incentives
after a double-digit drop in June vehicle sales. GM raised its cash rebates for
most of its SUVs to $5,000 with Ford upping $1,000 to $4,000 amid rising oil
prices and competition from Asian manufacturers.

New applications for mortgages
rose 19.5% the week ending 7/2, with the housing sector still strong despite
rising interest rates. Chain store sales rose 0.9% for the week ended July 3.
PeopleSoft

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warned it may miss earnings forecasts citing
disruptions from Oracle’s
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hostile takeover attempt. The
company expects earnings of 4 cents on revenue of $660 million. NetEase
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dropped after the company warned it may miss revenue expectations on lower
sales.

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay
was indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston; Mr. Lay has made arrangements
to turn himself in to authorities tomorrow.

After the close, Yahoo!
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reported Q2 at $0.08, in-line on $832 million revenue, but sees Q3
slower at $610 – $650 million. The company said FY04 revenue would be closer to
$2.5 billion, lower than expected. The stock traded down $4 after hours; some
traders were disappointed that the company did not make the whisper number of
0.09. Alcoa
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AA |
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reported $0.46 vs. a $0.48 cent estimate on revenue
of  $6.1 billion vs. $6.04 billion estimate. Schnitzer Steel
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beat by 0.12, but was light on revenues. Genentech
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reported
$0.19, in-line with estimates, with revenues +41%, and guided higher. Siebel
Systems

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was halted after the close; the company warned for Q2.

For Q2, the S&P tech sector is
expected to grow earnings by 57%, but some are wondering if the expectations are
too high.

Dow +20.95 10240.29
S&P 500 +2.12 1118.33
Nasdaq +2.65 1966.08

Strong today were: Gold and
Silver

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XAU.X |
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+3.99%, Amex Gold Bugs
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HUI.X |
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+3.39%,
 Healthcare

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+1.38%, Semis
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+1.12%.

Weak today were: Brokers
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XBD.X |
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-2.03%, Internet
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ECM.X |
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-1.44%, Airlines
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-1.01%.

10-year Notes were +010
at 110 135

The dollar
was -0.48 at 87.65

Gold was +7.80 at 401.90

Crude Oil was -0.49 at
39.08

Volume was 1.33 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.76 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was mixed.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2056 Up Vol 780
Declining 1213 Down Vol 512
Ratio 1.69 1.52
Nasdaq
Advancing 1428 Up Vol 842
Declining 1632 Down Vol 853
Ratio 1.14 1.01

Stocks in the news:

Secure Computing
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warned it may miss second-quarter forecasts as it now expects to
earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $22 million.

eBay
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was downgraded by
Prudential to Neutral on valuation and growth concerns.

Boeing
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BA |
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said it received
orders for 10 more 7E7 jetliners; the orders could be worth as much as $1.2
billion.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com