New Subpoena. Plus, Another FDA Approval
Stocks were
slightly higher on option expiration Friday.
Volume was light and market internals were flat.
With 26 trading days left in the year, 1900 level
looks like a magnet for the Nasdaq, which flirted with the 50-day moving average
all week.
For the week, the Dow fell 1.5%, Nasdaq -2.0%. The market had many issues to
contend with this week. The Energy Bill in the senate was blocked,
sending oil service stocks down. Airlines were weak on terror concerns, and
healthcare stocks fell on the Medicare bill. Internet stocks slid, with
Amazon and Yahoo falling 7% for the week.
Freddie
Mac
(
FRE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) restated its earnings for 2000 to 2002 to $5 billion. The
restatement will increase income by $4.4 billion for 2000-2002 and by $600 million before 2000. Time Warner
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) chose Edgar Bronfman Jr.
as the preferred candidate to buy Warner Music Group. TWX expects to fetch $2.5
billion in this sale. Worldwide delivery carrier UPS
(
UPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced
it would raise ground delivery rates by 1.9% next year, the smallest hike in
seven years. Air rates would rise 2.9%, all increases are effective January 5.
| Dow | +9.11 | 9628.53 |
| S&P | +1.63 | 1035.28 |
| Nasdaq | +11.96 | 1893.88 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.06%, Internet Commerce
(
$ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.31%, Semiconductors
(
$GSM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.43%, and Brokers
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.15%.
Weak today were Health
Providers [RXH.X|RXH.X] -1.79%, Oil
Service
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.31% and Healthcare
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-1.13%
10-year Notes were +015
at 113 270.
The dollar
was -0.06 at 90.60.
Gold was +0.93 at 396.21
Crude Oil was -0.26 at
31.60.
Market breadth:
Positive
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1925 | Up Vol 729 |
| Declining | 1288 | Down Vol 504 |
| Ratio | 1.49 | Volume ratio 59 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 729 | Up Vol 888 |
| Declining | 504 | Down Vol 647 |
| Ratio | 1.44 | Volume ratio 58 |
Volume was
1,259,287,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,614,788,000 on the Nasdaq.
Stocks in the news:
After the close, Bear
Stearns
(
BSC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it received a subpoena from the SEC over mutual fund
trading.
The FDA approved Eli Lilly’s
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Cialis, a competitor to Viagra. The company said the drug would be
available in 40 pharmacies by December. LLY fell 2% to 69.61.
Intel’s comments
yesterday were apparently well received, as the stock gained 1.5% to 32.32.
Nordstrom
(
JWN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat expectations at .33 vs. a .22 estimate.
Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced it would cease Phase III clinical program for its diabetes treatment
MK-767 — the second incident in 10 days. It was previously licensed from a Japanese company Kyorin
Pharmaceutical. Tests were halted due to reports of a rare type of malignant
tumor. MRK fell 9.3% for the week.
Gap
(
GPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a
profit of $262.6 million on a 7.8% increase in revenue. Revenue jumped to $3.93
billion, well ahead of Wall Street estimates. Same-store sales were up 6% for
the quarter.
Autodesk
(
ADSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
maker of the AutoCAD design software, reported a net income of $22.6 million on
sales of $233.9 million. It expects revenue for fiscal year 2005 to be in the
range of $940 million to $975 million with earnings of $1.00.
Barnes & Noble
(
BKS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
third-quarter earnings of $10.2 million on sales of $1.27 billion. It expects
earnings to be $2.00 to $2.07 a share for the full year.
If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.
Next week, look for earnings from Deere
(DE), Campbell Soup (CPB) and Heinz (HNZ).
bricew@tradingmarkets.com