Market Sinks — Here’s Why

June 13, 2003
Brice Wightman

Stocks
were lower Friday. An unexpected drop in consumer sentiment weighed on the major indices. Better-than-expected earnings from Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) failed to inspire buying interest. Oracle did hint that “things are
starting to turn around.” Separately J.D. Edwards
(
JDEC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is suing Oracle
for $1.7 billion in compensatory damages over its takeover attempt of Peoplesoft
(
PSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). With the exception of gold and healthcare, nearly every sector
closed in the red.
Semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which have been in the spotlight the last couple of days, are
among the biggest losers of the day. Deutsche Bank downgraded chip giant Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
from “buy” to “hold” on valuation basis. Bonds are again higher after the sour
economic news. The Dollar was lower.

The day’s leading sectors was
Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), up 2.09%.

In economic news, the
University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for June came in at 87.2 vs.
an expected 92.1. Producer prices for May came in -0.3% vs. expectations
of -0.2%. The core PPI was inline at +0.1%. The Trade Balance in April
came in at -$42 billion inline with estimates.

The 10-year U.S. Note
was +145 at 120 275.

The dollar was -0.64 at
92.25.

Gold was +3.30 at 357.20.

Crude Oil lost 1.03 at
29.33.

Volume was
1,259,288,000
on the NYSE, and 1,818,003,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was negative,
with NYSE declining issues over advancing issues by a ratio of 1.82, and down
volume over up volume by a 3.07 ratio. Nasdaq declining issues over advancing
issues at 1.89, and down volume over up volume is at a 4.25 ratio.

Top Dow stocks were:

Stocks in the news:

Ameritrade Holdings
(
AMTD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was higher after raising
third-quarter guidance. The company raised their third-quarter targets to 9 to
11 cents a share on revenues between $173 to $197 million. Wall Street had
expected 8 cents a share. Ameritrade also reported an 25% pickup in customer
trading volume over the last two months.

Adobe Systems
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was lower after giving a cautious outlook.
Late yesterday, the company reported second-quarter results of 28 cents a share
and beat estimates by 2 cents. Looking ahead, the company is forecasting
third-quarter results between 22 to 25 cents a share or below Street estimates
of 26 cents a share.

Andrx
(
ADRX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was
higher after the company
launched its generic over-the-counter version of the popular allergy drug,
Claritin.

Mandalay Resorts
(
MBG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced its first-ever dividend of 23 cents a share. Mandalay’s
dividend will be payable on August 1, 2003 to shareholders of record on June 26,
2003.

Enterprise software maker
Oracle Systems
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported fourth-quarter results of 16 cents a share, up 33% from the same period
a year ago. Oracle also beat estimates by 2 cents. ORCL closed at 13.48, up .15.

General Dynamics
(
GD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell 1.26 after Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock from “buy” to
“neutral.” Merrill based the downgrade solely on valuation. GD closed at 72.01.

Market Sinks — Here’s Why

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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