Oil, Iraq Hold Stocks At Bay
Stocks
gapped lower on continued fears over the Mid-East and political pressures in
Asia. A suicide car bomber in Baghdad killed the head of Iraq’s
governing council, Izzedin Salim. The US stumbled upon an artillery shelled with
a small amount of sarin agent. Indian stocks fell as much as 16% on concerns of
its new left-wing government. Foreigners reportedly have sold $615 million worth
of their investments over the last 9 trading sessions.
Lowe’s
(
LOW |
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PowerRating)
reported earnings of $455 million with sales up 22% to $8.68 billion and
same-store sales up 9.9%. The company reported strength in every product
category and every geographic region. Its profit margins rose to 33% and expects
second-quarter earnings to reach 89 cents and sales to grow 19%.
Crude oil reached a high of
$41.85 intraday, the highest price on record. Crude oil prices are up $9 a
barrel, or 28%, since the end of last year.
| Dow | -87.35 | 9924.74 |
| S&P 500 | -9.36 | 1086.67 |
| Nasdaq | -23.07 | 1880.91 |
Strong today are Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
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PowerRating) +2.30%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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PowerRating) +1.55%,
REITs
(
DJR.X |
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PowerRating) +0.44%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
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PowerRating) +0.03%,
Weak today are Networking
(
NWX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.78%. Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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PowerRating) -2.30%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
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PowerRating) -2.13%
Economic news releases today:
NY Empire State Index that was below expectations for the month of May at 30.21
10-year Notes are +205
at 109 135
The dollar
is -0.85 at 90.93
Gold is +3.20 at 380.30
Crude Oil is -0.12 at
41.18
Volume is 684,000
million on the NYSE, and 788,000 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 916 | Up Vol 103 |
| Declining | 2259 | Down Vol 580 |
| Ratio | 2.47 | 5.63 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 586 | Up Vol 121 |
| Declining | 2447 | Down Vol 666 |
| Ratio | 4.14 | 5.50 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
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PowerRating),
+0.94% at 55.06, Merck
(
MRK |
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PowerRating) +0.69% at 46.72, Pfizer
(
PFE |
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PowerRating),
+0.51% at 35.72, Procter & Gamble
(
PG |
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PowerRating) +0.44% at 106.88.
Stocks in the news:
XTO Energy
(
XTO |
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PowerRating) agreed to pay
$1.1 billion in cash to purchase some of ChevronTexaco’s
(
CVX |
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PowerRating) US
natural gas and oil fields. XTO expects to boost daily production of oil by
14,000 barrels and gas by 88 million cubic feet.
KMart
(
KMRT |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings
of $93 million from a loss of $862 million a year ago. Same-store sales declined
by 12.9% with total sales down 25.3% to $4.6 billion
The SEC is expected to charge five former
Lucent
(
LU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) executives for their roles in LU’s accounting problems. The
SEC fined the company $25 million in its settlement of civil fraud allegations
for failing to cooperate in its accounting investigation.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com