Stocks Consolidate, But Big Day For This IPO
Stocks were mixed Wednesday, with the Dow
closing in the red. The Dow was dragged
down by General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)–which fell to its
lowest level in 18 years as the company faces foreign competition, high costs
and unhappy shareholders–and American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) who said that
analysts’ estimates of 25% EPS growth in Q4 are "too high." (full
story)
"Basically we’ve had a straight shot up since the end of October, so it’s no
real surprise to see the market consolidating here," said money manager Rob
Hanna.
The core CPI was inline at +0.2%.
(full
report). Crude oil inventories fell 2.2
million barrels, more than expected; gasoline inventories fell 900,000
barrels; distillate inventories increased by 2.6 million barrels.
(full
report). For reports and analysis throughout the day go to
our
Economic News section.
After the close, Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.03. Intuit
(
INTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04, guided higher and
announced a $500 million stock buyback. Zumiez
(
ZUMZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03
and guided higher.
Abercrombie & Fitch
(
ANF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by
0.08 and guided higher. Q3 sales rose 79% and same store sales rose 25%. (story)
Tyco
(
TYC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by .02 but revenue was below
forecast. (story)
A NYSE seat sold for a record $3.25 million recently;
this, up from under a million dollars in January. Separately, the NYSE
settled its lawsuit with dissident seatholders. There will be a vote on the
merger on December 6.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) priced its IPO–16
million shares at $26. The stock closed at 38.24
Ben Bernanke was approved by the Senate Banking
Committee; the matter now moves on to the full Senate.
Google
(
GOOG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) hit a new high, just under $400.
The target price for the stock in several brokerage houses is well over $400.
Strong sectors were: Natural Gas
(
XNG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.85%
Healthcare
(
HMO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.75% Utilities
(
UTY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.33%
Weak sectors were:
Airlines
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.52% Retail
(
RLX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.33
Retail
(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.28%
|
|
-12.00 | 10,674.44 |
| +1.18 | 2187.92 | |
| +2.25 | 1231.26 |
More stocks on the move:
Talbots
(
TLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny. (story)
DR Horton
(
DHI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat estimates by 0.14 and raised
2006 guidance. (story)
Analog Devices
(
ADI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02 ex-items, but
quarterly profit fell 48%. (story)
Bank of America downgraded CME
(
CME |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to Neutral
from buy.
KLA-Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) meets
with analysts Tuesday. The company also said CEO will be replaced by president
and COO Richard Wallace.
La-Z-Boy
(
LZB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.05 and
guided higher. (story)
Brice Wightman
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& Commodities 2006 Readers’ Choice Awards