Recapping The Month In Stocks
Stocks were
flat the last day of the month with oil prices peaking at $43.85 midday.
Traders are worried that problems at Russian
oil company Yukos will only worsen and that 1.7 million bpd of oil will be taken
off the market. This was the first up-week for the Dow since June 18. For the
week, the Dow gained 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.4% and the Nasdaq added
2.1%. For the month, the Dow fell -2.8%, the S&P dropped -3.4% and the Nasdaq
slipped 7%. Strong for the month on the NYSE were energy and telecom stocks,
while technology and brokers were weak. Oil rose $6 in the month of July.
GDP
fell to a 3.0% increase, on higher energy
and food costs. Chicago PMI rose to 64.7 as activity in the Midwest showed
signs of growth. Michigan Sentiment was also higher at 96.7.
Schering-Plough
(
SGP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) plead guilty for defrauding
the Medicaid insurance program and agreed to pay penalties totaling $345.5
million. Bristol-Myers Squibb
(
BMY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) settled with the SEC for
artificially boosting its earnings and will pay a $300 million fine.
Parmalat countersued
Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), seeking $10 billion in damages. Ingram Micro
(
IM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings that more than doubled to $25.9 million with revenue topping
$5.72 billion. The company expects to earn $27.5 million on revenue of $5.8
billion for Q3.
Gilead Sciences
(
GILD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on higher HIV drug
sales with net income at $111.5 million on revenue of $320 million.
Sales of the HIV drug Viread rose 18 percent to $197 million.
| Dow | +10.47 | 10139.71 |
| S&P 500 | +1.28 | 1101.87 |
| Nasdaq | +6.30 | 1887.36 |
Strong today were: Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.44%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.27%, Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.77%.
Weak today were: Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.50%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.99%.
Economic news releases today
include GDP that grew at a mere 3.0%, Chain deflator at 3.2%. Michigan Sentiment
Index at 96.7 and Chicago PMI at 64.7.
10-year Notes were +225
at 110 215
The dollar
was -0.02 at 89.89
Gold was +2.70 at 391
Crude Oil was +0.98 at
43.73
Volume was 1.29 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.48 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1983 | Up Vol 548 |
| Declining | 1247 | Down Vol 550 |
| Ratio | 1.59 | 1.00 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1749 | Up Vol 888 |
| Declining | 1329 | Down Vol 488 |
| Ratio | 1.31 |
1.81
|
Stocks in the news:
Netgear
(
NTGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after
reporting earnings of $4.9 million and upped Q3 revenue forecasts to $100
million on introduction of new products and back-to-school demand.
The Washington Post
(
WPO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $84.9 million with revenue rising 16% to $706.9 million on
a big boost from its education division.
Conexant Systems
(
CNXT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a wider Q3 loss of $74.1 million on revenue
of $267.6 million and guided Q4 revenue to $255 million.
ChevronTexaco
(
CVX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) earnings more than doubled, to $4.1 billion on revenue of $37 billion.
The company also boosted its capital spending by 8.5
percent in the quarter to $3.8 billion.
Brice Wightman