Solid Day For Steel — Here’s Why
Stocks finished higher on light
pre-holiday trading. While retail holiday
sales appear to be lower than expected, Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a
surge in last-minute holiday shopping but cautioned it may only reach the low
end of its December sales forecast. Amazon
(
AMZN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after
reporting a strong last-minute rush, setting a single-day record of 2.1 million
items ordered with 70,000 gift certificates on Christmas Eve. Steel companies
received welcome news from China which lifted retaliatory tariffs on steel
products. Shares of Schnitzer Steel
(
SCHN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), United Steel
(
X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
both are trading 4% higher.
| Dow | +19.48 |
10324.67 |
| S&P 500 | +1.85 | 1995.89 |
| Nasdaq | +3.91 | 1973.14 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Amex Gold Bugs [HUI.X|HUI.X] +3.11%,
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.45%,
Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.66%, and Retail [RLX.X|RLX.X]
+0.44%.
Weak today were Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.22%, and Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.20%.
There were no economic news
releases today.
10-year Notes were +125
at 113 005
The dollar
was +0.04 at 87.93
Gold was +1.20 at 412.80
Crude Oil was -0.69 at
33.02
Volume was 354,000,000
on the NYSE, and 525,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1959 | Up Vol 240 |
| Declining | 1091 | Down Vol 106 |
| Ratio | 1.96 | 2.15 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1767 | Up Vol 317 |
| Declining | 1222 | Down Vol 196 |
| Ratio | 1.45 | 1.62 |
Top Dow stocks were:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.26% at 37.49,
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.90% at 31.36, IBM [IBM|IBM],
+0.68% at 92.90, and United Tech [UTX|UTX],
+0.63% at 94.66.
Stocks in the news:
Sharper Image
(
SHPGY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
strong holiday sales and boosted its earnings outlook for the fourth quarter to
above $1.34 cents per share. It now expects full-year earnings to be at least
$1.57 per share.
Tyson Foods
(
TSN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was hit with a
downgrade by Morgan Stanley due to the mad cow effect. The analyst’s view of low
beef packer margins was a factor in the unfavorable outlook.
Drexler Techonology
(
DRXR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 7%
after announcing plans to sell 791,000 shares to raise more equity.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com