Sharp Decline In Crude And Unleaded; Here’s Why
Stocks
rallied on the first day of the new quarter ahead of tomorrow’s crucial jobs
number. Wall Street’s consensus is set at
5.6%. Crude and unleaded gasoline prices fell sharply after the Bush
administration said it is seriously considering requests from three states
(California, New York and Connecticut) to not enforce cleaner-burning fuel
standards required for the summer months.
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
better auto sales while General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said sales were in line
with estimates. Merrill downgraded the retailer sector on worries of higher
interest rates and an easing of import quotas for the apparel manufacturing
industry. Companies such as Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Dillard’s
(
DDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded lower today. Fast-food chain Jack
in the Box
(
JBX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its second-quarter earnings outlook by 15 cents
to 43 cents and expects same-store sales to increase by 7.5%.
The SEC said it would start an
informal investigation of the IPO process of China’s largest life insurer
China Life
(
LFC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) which was the biggest IPO last year, valued at $3.4
billion.
The ISM manufacturing index
rose 1.1 points to 62.5, showing a slight pickup in factory activity. US
Treasury prices fell to yield 3.89%. The ECB left interest rates unchanged at 2%
noting that it was low enough to allow a healthy recovery. Effective April 8,
Dow-30 components AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and International
Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will be replaced by Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), American
International Group
(
AIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Verizon
(
VZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). The last time
significant changes were made to the Dow was 1999. The new additions rallied on
the news and T, EK and IP fell.
Ericsson
(
ERICY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will report better margins than the 41.6% achieved in the fourth quarter, thanks
mainly to better-than-expected benefits of production-cost cuts.
| Dow | +15.63 |
10373.33 |
| S&P 500 |
+5.96 | 1132.17 |
| Nasdaq | +20.78 |
2015.00 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.77%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.86%,
Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 1.81%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.77%,
and Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.65%.
Weak today are Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.68% and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.62%.
Economic news releases today
included initial claims that fell by 3,000 to 342,000, the Producer Price index
rising by a disappointing 0.1% and Construction spending falling by 0.1%. The
ISM index was 1.1 points higher at 52.5.
10-year Notes are -170
at 114 280
The dollar
is -0.42 at 87.53
Gold is -1.50 at 427.30
Crude Oil is -0.16 at
33.91
Volume is 1,529,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,799,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
2157 | Up Vol 1043 |
| Declining | 1101 | Down Vol 471 |
| Ratio | 2.01 | 2.21 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1995 | Up Vol 1302 |
| Declining |
1156 | Down Vol 447 |
| Ratio | 1.74 | 2.95 |
Stocks in the news:
SuperGen
(
SUPG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported positive results for its leukemia test but there was confusion over
whether the results were statistically significant. SUPG dropped 33%.
American Eagle Outfitters
(
AEOS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a 7.8% increase for March sales and guided the Street higher. It now
expects earnings to be 28 cents for the quarter.
Bed Bath & Beyond
(
BBBY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted
higher fourth-quarter earnings of $144.2 million on sales of $1.3 billion.
Pier 1 Imports
(
PIR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted
fourth-quarter earnings of $48.3 million on sales of $555.26 million, up 6%.
Same-store sales were 2.7% lower. Same-store sales are expected to increase 3%
in March, with earnings around 23 cents a share for the next quarter and $1.48
for 2005.