Nasdaq Anniversary, But Here’s Why It Wasn’t A Party
In a
late-day slide, stocks
fell Wednesday in broad-based selling,
closing at intraday lows and lows for the year. The Dow fell -1.6% and the
Nasdaq -1.55%. This comes 4 years to the day that the Nasdaq made its high at
5132. In another twist, it was a year ago this week that stocks began rallying
from the 3-year bear market as the Iraq War began.
The
US trade gap ballooned to $43.1 billion in January with oil prices boosting
imports with prices jumping to $28.55 a barrel, the highest since March 2003.
Mortgage applications rose to 1.2% as interest rates fell to their lowest lowest
level since last June.
Nastech Pharmaceutical
(
NSTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said results from its experimental nasal-sprays for sexual dysfunction and
obesity both reported positive results.
Four major ISPs, Earthlink
(
ELNK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Time Warner
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
and Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) filed six lawsuits against hundreds of
spammers under the new anti-spam law that took effect last year. Procter &
Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a 2-for-1 stock split and guided the Street higher
with volume growth of 10%, beating earnings by a penny. PG also raised its
annual dividend by 4 cents to 50 cents. This is the eighth time in nine quarters that the company has raised its guidance.
PG was the big gainer in the Dow today.
According to Reuters, U.S.
applications for mortgage loans rose last week as rates fell to their lowest
level since last June and economists expect the low rates to spur more demand
for new loans.
Tomorrow, look for retail sales
figures.
| Dow | -160.07 |
10296.89 |
| S&P 500 |
-16.68 |
1123.90 |
| Nasdaq | -31.01 |
1964.15 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.23%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.98%,
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.74%, and Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.53%.
Weak today were Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.20%, and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.85%
Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.12% and Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.80%.
Economic news releases today
included wholesale inventories that rose a mere 0.1%, much lower than the
expected 0.4%. The US trade deficit rose to $43.1 billion, higher than the
estimated $42 billion.
After the close, Tech Data
(
TECD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported $0.67 vs. $0.54 estimate and guided and traded higher.
Peabody Energy
(
BTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a 6.5 million share offering. Comverse
Tech
(
CMVT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny at 0.02 and beat on revenues.
10-year Notes were -040
at 115 290.
The dollar
was +0.57 at 88.86.
Gold was -1.64 at
399.69.
Crude Oil was -0.08 at
36.10.
Volume was
1,651,260,000 on
the NYSE, and 2,147,425,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 845 | Up Vol 197 |
| Declining | 2471 | Down Vol 1444 |
| Ratio | 2.92 |
7.32 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 716 | Up Vol 562 |
| Declining | 2449 | Dow Vol 1510 |
| Ratio | 3.42 |
2.68 |
Stocks in the news:
Krispy Kreme
(
KKD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) slid despite higher quarterly earnings that were in-line with
estimates. A Wall Street Journal article mentioned declining profit
margins. KKD closed at 34.22 down 3.94.
ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said it expects to see $1 billion in savings 2004 following a record yearly
profit.
Global Crossing
(
GLBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell $10 –or 38% — after the company reported a $25 million profit; the gains
due to from emerging from bankruptcy and not from operations.
Rockwell Automation
(
ROK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said
that its second-quarter earnings would be above expectations. With strong sales,
it now expects earnings to reach 35 cents a share for the next quarter.
Talbots
(
TLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings
that fell to $22 million on net sales of $431.5 million with same-store sales
ticking down 4.7%.
El Paso
(
EP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has delayed release of its
fourth-quarter earnings due to a negative revision for its natural gas reserves.