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.Â
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:Â EBAY -15%; AAPL -14%; SUNW -10%; DELL -9%; ORCL -8%.
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) 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
(
GTW |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a narrower net loss at 0.01.
KLA-Tencor
(
KLAC |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) 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
(
CVX |
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PowerRating) missed estimates; revenues rose 22%.
ITT Industries
(
ITT |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.21 and raised 2005 guidance.
Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 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: Â Healthcare Providers
(
$HMO.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating)
+3.52%Â Chemicals
(
$HGX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.74%Â
Homebuilders
(
$HGX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.04%
Weak sectors were: Â Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.75%Â Â
Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.25%Â Retail
(
$RLX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-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
(
CCU |
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News |
PowerRating) will spin off its entertainment unit. The
company also declared a special $3/share dividend and raised its regular
dividend by 50%.
Cardinal Health
(
CAH |
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PowerRating) beat by a penny.
The FDA approved Lilly
(
LLY |
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PowerRating) and Amylin’s
(
AMLN |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
diabetes drug to be used in combination with other drugs.Â
Archer Daniels Midland
(
ADM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny.
Kellogg
(
K |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded at JP Morgan, from neutral to overweight.
Brice Wightman