Semis Weak–Here’s What Happened…

  • December 8, 2004
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks are higher but the semiconductors are weak
on a Bank of America downgrade on the sector and guidance from Texas
Instruments. Bank of America lowered seven chip stocks to ‘sell.’ Included are:
NSM, XLNX, ADI and ALTR. Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it expects
earnings at the mid-range of previous estimates.

Pixar
(
PIXR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower after the company said it would delay its
new movie “Cars.” Disney will delay its “Chicken Little” release.

Gold is plummeting today–down $16. The dollar is bouncing.

Hovnanian
(
HOV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said quarterly net income rose 47%; the company
also guided higher for ’05.

General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was raised to overweight at Lehman.

Strong sectors are: Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.71%, Healthcare
Providers
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.62%, Healthcare
(
HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.28%.

Weak sectors are: Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.10%,
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.52%

Dow +45.59 10486.17
S&P 500 +4.15 1181.22
Nasdaq +8.26 2122.92

The dollar is +1.11 at
82.35

Gold is -12.20 to 435.20

Crude Oil is +0.74 at 42.20

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 705 million on the NYSE and
1.25 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1805 Up Vol 329
Declining 1333 Down Vol 313
Ratio 1.35 1.05
Nasdaq
Advancing 1607 Up Vol 395
Declining 1320 Down Vol 774
Ratio 1.21 1.95

Stocks in the News.

Seagate
(
STX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided higher.

BEA Systems
(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) won a $62 million Navy contract.

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) expects 2005 earnings of 2.42-2.52 per share, down
from the $2.58 expectation.

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Brice Wightman