Nasdaq Merger!

Stocks were lower Friday, with the Dow down another
triple digits.
The market suffered a sharp drop beginning at 2:00,
after the U.S. warned China that North Korea might be preparing for a
nuclear weapons test. The market then rallied from 3:30 PM to the close. All
three major indices closed higher for the week, with the Dow +0.71%, the Nasdaq
+1.26%, and the S&P 500 +0.84%. It was a rough week for corporate bonds,
with Eastman Kodak
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and Maytag
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bonds getting cut to junk
ratings.

Nasdaq is buying Instinet
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for $1.88 billion. The
Nasdaq plans to more effectively compete with the NYSE, which yesterday
announced it would merge with Archipelago
(
AX |
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.

Google
(
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reported 1.12, beating by 0.20. In the same period
last year the company earned 0.24. Google has beaten estimates since it went
public last year. The stock opened at its high and traded lower all session.

Amgen
(
AMGN |
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missed by a penny at 0.67. Revenue was $2.7 billion.
The company increased its full-year guidance. 2002

Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
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missed by a wide margin.

Maytag
(
MYG |
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Q1 profit fell 80%. The company cited higher fuel an
raw materials costs and also guided lower.

International Paper
(
IP |
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beat expectations by 0.02.

Strong sectors were:  Oil
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$OIX.X |
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+0.51%  
Oil Services

(
$OSX.X |
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+0.48%   Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X |
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+0.35%

Weak sectors were: Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
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-5.44%   Computer
Hardware

(
$HWI.X$ |
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-2.59%   Retail
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$RLX.X |
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-2.10%

Dow  -61.26 10,157.34
Nasdaq -29.60 1932.81
S&P 500 -7.71 1152.25

The dollar was -0.20 at
83.49

Crude Oil was +1.19 at
55.39

Gold was +2.20 at 434.20

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 2.0 billion on the NYSE and
1.8 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1124 Up Vol 441
Declining 2123 Down Vol 1402
1.88 3.17
Nasdaq
Advancing 957 Up Vol 342
Declining 2109 Down Vol 1393
2.20 4.07

Stocks in the News

Callaway Golf’s
(
ELY |
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profit was cut in half; the company missed
by 0.03.

Costco
(
COST |
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lowered guidance citing weaker gasoline sales.

Brice Wightman