Stocks Fight Back, Plus, A First Look At Earnings
Stocks were higher Thursday
despite a terrorist attack in Europe.
A series of explosions hit London’s
subway system during rush hour in what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack;
a bomb also hit a double decker bus. It was the worst attack in Britain since
WWII. The BBC reported that Al Qaeda took credit for the attacks, which claimed
50 lives.
At its worst the Dow was down 95
points, with the S&P down 11. The market made its low early on and was in rally
mode the rest of the session.
Jobless claims for the week
of 7/2 rose 7,000 to 319,000. June retail sales rose overall. ANF, KSS,
CHS and JCP all reported outstanding results.
Crude inventories fell 3.6 million
barrels, much more than expected. Distillate stocks saw a build of 4 million
barrels. Gas inventories fell 900K barrels.
After the close, Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
missed by 0.02, excluding items. Revenues rose 13% year/year. Â Accenture
(
ACN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.08 but was light on revenues.
In light of today’s attacks in London, security and biopharma stocks were in
focus, among them:
Acambis
(
ACAM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), a maker of vaccines, rose 3%.
Hollis-Eden
(
HEPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 4%; the company makes a treatment for radiation
poisoning.
Cehpeid
(
CPHD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), a maker of biohazard detection systems, rose 0.68%.
Human Genome Science
(
HGSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) added 3%.
Also, GLD is in focus after today’s terror attack, as will crude oil,
which is trading lower as traders worry that the attacks will decrease the
demand for jet fuel and diesel as travel and transportation in general may
soften.
Charles Schwab
(
SCH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was halted briefly intraday on buyout
speculation; the company said it had no interest in selling.
Haliburton
(
HAL |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received $5 billion in new Army contracts.
American Eagle
(
AEOS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said June comps rose 28%; the company also
guided higher for Q2.
Same store sales at Wet Seal
(
WTSLA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 59.3%.
Dennis is now a hurricane; it
was upgraded overnight from a tropical storm.
Strong sectors were:Â Â Homebuilders
(
$HGX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.37% Â Â Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Â Â Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.89%Â Â Â Â Â Â
Â
    Â
Weak sectors were: Â Airlines
Â
(
$XAL.X.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.23%Â Â Â Â Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.60%Â Â Â Â Â Â
| Dow | +31.61 | 10,302.29 |
| Nasdaq | +7.01 | 2075.66 |
| S&P 500 | +2.93 | 1197.87 |
The dollar was -0.08 at
90.31
Crude Oil was -0.53 at
60.75
Gold was -1.30 at 422.90
1.602 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1690 | Up Vol 840 |
| Declining | 1524 | Down Vol 845 |
| 1.10 | 1.00 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1470 | Up Vol 828 |
| Declining | 1532 | Down Vol 607 |
| 1.04 | 1.36 |
Stocks in the News
Red Envelope
(
REDE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) delayed its 10K filing.
Ruby Tuesday missed by a penny.
Starbucks‘
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) June comps rose 7%, in-line.
Murphy Oil
(
MUR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided higher.
Brice Wightman