Lower Oil Powers Rally, Plus, Look At These April Performance Figures

Stocks were higher on lower oil. The Dow
was up by triple digits as oil closed down
below $50; this is the first time in two months that oil has closed under that
level. Crude fell 11% for the week.
Personal income for March rose +0.5%, more than expected; personal
spending rose +0.6%. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was
87.7 for April, below estimates. 

For the month, the Dow fell 3%; the S&P 500 lost 2%. The Nasdaq lost 4% and
has been down for four straight months. Here is the performance for selected
stocks in April:  EBAY -15%; AAPL -14%; SUNW -10%; DELL -9%; ORCL -8%.

Microsoft
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reported 0.32, in-line. Revenue was $9.6
billion, lower than the expected $9.83 billion estimate.. The company guided
slightly higher. MSFT traded lower after hours.

Gateway
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posted a narrower net loss at 0.01.

KLA-Tencor
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beat by 0.05 as Q3 net income surged 86%, but
the company cut its sales outlook for the current quarter. The stock is trading
lower pre-open.

Chevron Texaco
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missed estimates; revenues rose 22%.

ITT Industries
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beat by 0.21 and raised 2005 guidance.

Sun Microsystems
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may go private, according to The Wall
Street Journal. A hedge fund manager quoted in the article put the LBO price
between $5 – $5.50 per share. Shares of SUNW closed at $3.44 yesterday.

A NYSE seat sold for $2.6 million, up $200,000 from two days ago and just
short of the all-time record high of $2.65 million in August 1999. It was the
third seat sale this week.

Strong sectors were:   Healthcare Providers
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+3.52%  Chemicals
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+2.74% 
Homebuilders

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+2.04%

Weak sectors were:   Disk Drives
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-1.75%  
Oil Services
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-0.25%  Retail
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-0.11%

Dow +120.67 10,191.04
Nasdaq +17.47 1921.65
S&P 500 +13.41 1156.63

The dollar was +0.05 at
84.44

Crude Oil was -2.57 at
49.20

Gold was +3.50 at 434.50

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 2.3 billion on the NYSE and 2
billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2115 Up Vol 1355
Declining 1141 Down Vol 654
1.85 2.07
Nasdaq
Advancing 1758 Up Vol 1308
Declining 1320 Down Vol 565
1.33 2.31

Stocks in the News

Clear Channel
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will spin off its entertainment unit. The
company also declared a special $3/share dividend and raised its regular
dividend by 50%.

Cardinal Health
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beat by a penny.

The FDA approved Lilly
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and Amylin’s
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diabetes drug to be used in combination with other drugs. 

Archer Daniels Midland
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beat by a penny.

Kellogg
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was upgraded at JP Morgan, from neutral to overweight.

Brice Wightman