Quiz: What Dow Stock Yields 5.85%?
Stocks were slight lower
Wednesday
after the Fed raised Fed funds rates 1/4% to
2.00%, as expected, and said the economy “appears to be growing at a moderate
pace.” The Fed also said that inflation “remains well contained.” Fed funds are
now at the highest rate since November 2001. The dollar hit another all-time low
against the euro.
Semi capital equipment stocks  (KLAC,
NLVS, AMAT, LRCX) were downgraded at Morgan Stanley. The brokerage firm sees the
start of an industry downturn.
The EIA reported a build in crude inventories of 1.8 million barrels; there was
a drawdown in distillates, as they fell -0.1 million barrels; gasoline
stocks fell 0.4 million barrels.
Cisco (CSCO)
traded lower after reporting $0.21, in-line and guiding lower. Net income was
$1.4 billion and revenues were shy of the expected $6 billion. Cisco often beats
by a penny.
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) doubled its quarterly
dividend to $0.08 share and authorized an additional $500 million stock buyback.
Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded lower after a New York Times article said
that patients receiving Bextra had twice as many heart attacks as those given
placebos. Merck’s
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) debt rating was downgraded by Moody’s.
Speaking of dividends, at this level, Merck yields 5.85% (note: not a
recommendation).
The trade deficit was $51.6 billion, better than
expected. Import prices rose +1.5%; ex oil, +2.7%. Jobless claims for the week
of 11/6 rose 2000 to 333,000; the 4-week moving average fell 5,000 to 336,000.
Continuing claims were 2.81 million.
At press time, the threat level against financial
institutions is scheduled to be lowered.
The MBA said that new mortgage applications for
the week of 11/5 fell 4.5%
After the close, Starbucks
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported 0.25, in-line and guided
a penny lower for Y05. Cyberonics
(
CYBX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.06 and guided
lower.
Today is the 35th anniversary of the first
Sesame Street show.
| Dow | -0.89 | 10385.48 |
| S&P 500 | -1.17 | 1162.91 |
| Nasdaq | -8.77 | 2034.56 |
Strong sectors were:
Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.13%, Natural Gas
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.96 %,
Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.83%.
Weak sectors were: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.29, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.90%, Computer Tech
(
XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.97%.
The dollar was +0.12 at
84.38
Gold was +0.40 at 433.60
Crude Oil was +1.48 at 48.85
1.73 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1961 | Up Vol 832 |
| Declining | 1374 | Down Vol 640 |
| Ratio | 1.42 | 1.3 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1650 | Up Vol 652 |
| Declining | 1426 | Down Vol 1172 |
| Ratio | 1.15 | 1.79 |
Stocks in the News
Advanced Micro Devices
(
AMD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded at Lehman.
Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS.
Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS.
Brice Wightman