Stocks Close Mixed on the Day

  • February 2, 2007
  • Darren Wong

Stocks finish the day mixed as traders were indecisive
following numerous economic reports released this morning.  The Dow 30
index was the only major index to finish with a loss.  Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) led the blue chip index to the downside each losing
over 1%.

Traders should exercise
caution as our PowerRatings
Heat Maps*
from Thursday’s close shows 27 of the 30 covered sectors showing price action that has historically led to weakness. 

Click here for your free trial to see today’s PowerRatings Heat Maps and to
prepare yourself for trading next week.

Overcoming an early selloff, the price of oil
surged in the afternoon to close up $1.72 for the day at $59.02. 
The
sharp rise by the price of oil was partly due to news that the leaders of two of
Nigeria’s two main oil workers unions threatened to pull their workers out of
the oil-rich Niger Delta in protest of the increasing violence in the region.

The price of gold moved sharply lower over
the course of the trading day on Friday, giving back some ground after it closed
higher in the three previous sessions. Gold for April delivery closed down
$11.50 at $651.50 an ounce.

Stocks in
Motion

Amazon
(
AMZN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Drops 51%, Tops Estimates;
Guides Q1, FY07 Sales Above Consensus (full
story).  AMZN shares finish lower by 3.2%.

NYSE Group
(
NYX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Posts Q4 Profit On Surge In
Transaction Revenues; EPS Misses View (full
story).  NYX shares lose 1.8%.

Arch Coal
(
ACI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Posts Profit In Q4 On Lower Costs,
Expanded Margins; Sees Challenging Q1; Cuts 2007 Production Outlook (full
story).  ACI shares gain 2%.

Chevron
(
CVX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Declines 9%, EPS Tops
Consensus By A Penny, Revenues Down 11.2% (full
story).  CVX shares lose 0.5%.

Secure Computing Corp.
(
SCUR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Gaining Ground On Q4
News (full
story).  SCUR shares soar by 29%.

For more stories as they happen, go to our
Breaking News section.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -20.19 12,653.49

NASDAQ

 +7.50 2,475.88

S&P 500

 +2.45 1,448.39

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,432,350,000 1,875,450,000

Advances

 1870 1622

Declines

 1368 1386

Up Volume

 1283 1103

Down Volume

 987 709

New Highs

 371 190

New Lows

 13 39


Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
GSTI Multimedia Index (GIP) Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI)
Amex Networking Index (NWX) CBOE Oil Index (OIX)
Nasdaq Telecommunications Index (IXTC) Amex Oil Index (XOI)

Economic
News

Factory Orders +2.4% vs +1.8%
consensus

Michigan Sentiment-rev 96.9 vs 97.8
consensus

Nonfarm Payrolls 111K vs 150K consensus

Hourly Earnings +0.2% vs +0.3% consensus

Unemployment Rate 4.6% vs 4.5% consensus

Average Workweek 33.8 vs 33.9 consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com