Martha’s New Gig, Plus, Snow Keeps His Job

  • December 8, 2004
  • Brice Wightman

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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Brice Wightman