Martha’s New Gig, Plus, Snow Keeps His Job
Stocks were higher but the semiconductors were weak
on a Bank of America downgrade on the sector and guidance from Texas
Instruments. Bank of America lowered seven chip stocks to ‘sell.’ Included are:
NSM, XLNX, ADI and ALTR. Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it expects
earnings at the mid-range of previous estimates.
Pixar
(
PIXR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was lower after the company said it would delay its
new movie “Cars.” Disney will delay its “Chicken Little” release.
Gold is plummeted today–down $9. The dollar is bounced.
Martha Stewart
(
MSO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will host a 1 hour show on NBC beginning next
Fall. MSO closed at 24.43, up 1.55.
Hovnanian
(
HOV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said quarterly net income rose 47%; the company
also guided higher for ’05.
General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was raised to overweight at Lehman.
Treasury Secretary John Snow will remain in his job after weathering a
storm.
After the close, Dreamworks
(
DWA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny and said it will
delay the release of Shrek 3. It was the first report since the company went
public.
Strong sectors were: Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.35%, Healthcare
Providers
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.50%, Healthcare
(
HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.56%.
Weak sectors were: Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.44%,
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.27%
Dow | +53.65 | 10494.23 |
S&P 500 | +5 | 1182 |
Nasdaq | +11 | 2125 |
The dollar was +0.84 at
82.08
Gold was -9.20 to 435.20
Crude Oil was +0.48 at 41.94
ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 2.4 billion on the NYSE and
1.52 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
NYSE | Issues | |
Advancing | 1931 | Up Vol 729 |
Declining | 1368 | Down Vol 640 |
Ratio | 1.41 | 1.13 |
Nasdaq |
||
Advancing | 1732 | Up Vol 853 |
Declining | 1416 | Down Vol 1387 |
Ratio | 1.22 | 1.62 |
Stocks in the News.
Seagate
(
STX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided higher.
BEA Systems
(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) won a $62 million Navy contract.
Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) expects 2005 earnings of 2.42-2.52 per share, down
from the $2.58 expectation.
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