One Day Before 9/11, Here’s What Spooked The Market
Stocks
fell Wednesday — for a second day — with technology and financial
issues leading the way down. Analyst downgrades and disappointment over updates from
Texas
Instruments and Xilinx weighed on the market. The Semiconductor Index
fell 5.3% — its largest daily decline since January. A new Osama bin Laden
videotape shook investors a day before the second anniversary of 9/11. Bonds
rose slightly.
Today’s
Market Indices
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 86.74 to 9420.46.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
slid 49.62 to 1823.81.
The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell 12.25 to 1010.92.
NYSE Volume
1,514,985,000Â
NYSE Advancers 1102Â Â
NYSE Decliners 2020
NASDAQ Volume
1,974,337,000Â
NASDAQ Advancers 952Â Â Â
NASDAQ Decliners 2109
Today’s
Leading Sectors
Pharmaceutical Index
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.97%
S&P Health Care Index
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +.38%
Utility Index
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+.%.
Today’s Weak
Sectors
Semiconductor Sector
Index
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -5.32%
Networking Index
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -5.21%
Security Broker Dealer
Index
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -3.46%
Computer Hardware Index
(
$HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -4.37%
Economic
News
The US economy will grow 2.6%
in 2003, underpinned by a burst of spending in the current quarter, according to
the average estimate of 54 economists surveyed by Blue Chip Economic Indicators.
It’s the first time since February that the estimate has exceeded the 2.3%
growth rate for 2002. The MBA refinancing index jumped 45.5% to 2883.6 as
homeowners take advantage of last week’s 26-basis-point decline in the contract
rate to 5.99% for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Furthermore, the MBA purchase
index rose 3.2% to 408.8. Today’s release signals that the residential real
estate market continues to be a source of strength for the economy, while any
acceleration in mortgage refinancing would be expected to provide additional
stimulus and underpin consumer spending.
Key Futures
The 10-year U.S. Note
was +265 at 113 200
The dollar was +.07
at 95.61
Gold was -0.60 at
380.90
Crude Oil was +.20
at 29.35
Dow Stocks
AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.05 at 21.95
Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.91 at 53.70
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.13 at 27.66
Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -.33 at 43.95
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.82 at
27.55
Stocks in the News
National City
(
NCC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Key
Corp.
(
KEY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) issued full year earnings warnings as the trend in home
buying and refinancing seems to be topping. NCC fell 4.74% and KEY fell 3%.
Another bank with a large mortgage presence, Washington Mutual
(
WM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
fell 4%.
Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said its backlog of orders rose 14% from last year.
Sun MicrosystemsÂ
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Lucent
TechnologiesÂ
(
LU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) each fell 7%. Yesterday Sun co-founder Bill Joy
announced he was leaving the company.
Texas Instruments.
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
which makes chips used in half the wireless phones sold worldwide, fell $1.46 to
$23.86. The company predicted that sales will climb at least 6.3% in the third
quarter. Some investors had expected a bigger increase after Intel, the world’s
biggest chipmaker, last week forecast a 17% jump. TXN fell 1.90 to 23.42.
Smith Barney took down its
rating on Nortel Networks
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Juniper Networks
(
JNPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
telling clients that even though capital spending should trend higher in the
second half of the year, “flattish” investments are expected in 2004.
After yesterday’s close,
Xilinx Inc.
(
XLNX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reaffirmed 2Q guidance, stating that revenues are
expected to be flat or up slightly from the previous quarter’s $313.3 million.
XLNX closed at 30.29, down 1.81.
Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Xoma
(
XOMA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) scored a key regulatory win late Thursday when a FDA
advisory panel recommended approval for Raptiva, a psoriasis drug developed by
the two companies. Analysts anticipate Raptiva will receive final FDA approval
at the end of the year. XOMA closed at 9.48, up 0.04 and DNA fell 2.10 to 82.45.
If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com