Stocks Lifted By Earnings

Stocks rose Wednesday after good reports from two
technology companies, as well as lower oil prices.

Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.09, but net income fell 16% in Q3. The company said
orders this quarter will rise 5-10% sequentially. AMAT gained  6%.

Q3 earnings at Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell sharply, but profits
topped estimates by 0.05. The company guided higher and the stock was also upgraded at Bank of America, Bear
Stearns and First Albany. HPQ is 10% higher.

The EIA reported a crude build 300K barrels; gasoline saw a 5 million barrel
drawdown; distillate inventories rose 1.2 million barrels. The gasoline
inventory numbers were a surprise. Crude oil traded 4% lower as did petroleum
producers such as ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.50%, and ChevronTexaco
(
CVX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.40%.

The PPI for July rose 1.0% almost double the expected figure. Ex food/energy,
it gained 0.4%.

After the bell, Medtronic
(
MDT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny. Network
Appliance
(
NTAP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also beat by a penny. BEA Systems
(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was in-line at 0.09. Men’s Wearhouse
(
MW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed by 0.04 and guided
in-line.

Strong sectors are:  Airlines

(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.64%      Computer Hardware

(
HWI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.59%          Disk
Drives

(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.40%   

Weak sectors are:   Gold 

(
XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.77%    Oil

(
OIX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.57%   

Brice Wightman