New Highs For The Dow, Plus, The Latest Nasdaq Stock To Initiate A Dividend

  • February 15, 2005
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks are higher, with the
Dow and S&P making fresh highs for the year.
New highs in the Dow include ExxonMobil, McDonadl’s
and DuPont.

Retail sales for January fell  -0.3%; ex
auto +0.6%. Year/year, retail sales rose +7.6%. The Empire State Manufacturing
Index fell less than expected, to 19.2 in February from 20.1 in January;
economists were expecting a fall to 18.9.

Circuit City
(
CC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received an unsolicited buyout offer from
Highfields Capital Management LP at $17.

Agilent
(
A |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat estimates but guided lower.

KLA-Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) initiated a quarterly dividend of 12.5
cents/share; analysts feel that this will put pressure on Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to begin a dividend.

Transocean
(
RIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed by 0.04.

Medco
(
MHS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02 as quarterly profits rose.

Strong sectors are: Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.25%  Computer Hardware
(
$HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.95%   Semis  
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.68%

Weak sectors are: Gold
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.53%  Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.33%   Utilities
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.21%.

Dow +43.82 10,834.95
Nasdaq +155.17 2098.08
S&P 500 +4.64 1210.78

The dollar is -0.62 at
83.72

Crude Oil is +0.21 at
48.23

Gold is +0.90 to 424.60

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 678 million on the NYSE and 1 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1915 Up Vol 413
Declining 1221 Down Vol 206
1.56 2.00
Nasdaq
Advancing 1715 Up Vol 780
Declining 1235 Down Vol 178
1.38 4.38

Stocks in the News

Fresh Del Monte
(
FDP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.10; Q4 profits, however, was lower
due to high fuel and transportation costs.

Teva Pharmaceuticals
(
TEVA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02; Q4 net income rose 50%.
The stock is lower pre-open.

Apple’s
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) price target was raised at Merrill Lynch, to $102
from $85.

Brice Wightman