Stocks Pull Back on Weak Economic Data

  • April 30, 2007
  • Darren Wong

The major indices sold off on weak personal
spending data. The Nasdaq Composite led to the downside with a
loss of 1.3%.  The largest decliners in the Nasdaq 100
included NII Holdings
(
NIHD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Amylin
Pharmaceuticals
(
AMLN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which had losses of 4.5% and 4%
respectively.

June crude futures closed lower
by 1.1% to $65.71 a barrel. 
June gold futures added 0.3% to finish at $683.50 an ounce.

Around Europe, Germany’s DAX added
0.4% to close at 7,408.87, France’s CAC 40 Index gained 0.5% to
5,960.04, and Britain’s FTSE 100 Index lost 0.3% to 6,449.20.

Today‘s

PowerRatings Heat Map continues to be moderately bearish, with
very little green to be found.  The Energy sector continues
to look the weakest since it has had a major runup and long
positions in this sector will carry higher risk. 


Stocks in
Motion

Humana
(
HUM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Falls 15% On Absence Of Gain,
Higher Expenses; EPS Tops Expectations; Revenues Rise 32%; Guides Q2; Lifts FY07
EPS View, Backs Revenue Outlook (full
story).  HUM shares fell 2%.

Higher Sales Drive Wm. Wrigley’s
(
WWY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Up
28%; Non-GAAP EPS Tops Street View (full
story).  WWY shares added 7.5%.

Verizon
(
VZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Drops 8.4% On Charges, Lower
Income From Discont. Ops; Adj. EPS Beats Estimate; Revenue Up 6% (full
story).  VZ shares gained nearly 1%.

Yahoo
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Buy Rest Of Right Media For $680
Mln (full
story).  YHOO shares fell 1%.

Deutsche Boerse AG In Talks To Buy International Securities
Exchange
(
ISE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) For $2.8 Bln In Cash; ISE Stock Surges (full
story).  ISE shares soared by 46%.

Hilton Hotels
(
HLT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Down 9%, Revenue Up
29%; Cuts FY07 EPS & Revenue Forecast (full
story).  HLT shares fell 3%.

Health Net
(
HNT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Rises 16% On Higher
Premium Revenues; Guides Q2 EPS Below Consensus (full
story).  HNT shares fell 3.6%.

RadioShack
(
RSH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Soars More-than Five-fold
On Lower Expenses; Top Line Declines 14.5%, Comps Down 9.2% (full
story).  RSH shares jumped 5.2%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -58.03 13,062.91

NASDAQ

 -32.12 2,525.09

S&P 500

 -11.70 1,482.37

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,963,902,000 2,080,678,000

Advances

 921 890

Declines

 2330 2175

Up Volume

 585 329

Down Volume

 2122 1672

New Highs

 253 147

New Lows

 35 100



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
S&P Healthcare Index (HCX) GSTI Internet Index (GIN)
Amex Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) S&P Retail Index (RLX)
CBOE Dow Ten Index (MUT) Nasdaq Telecom Index (IXTC)


Economic
News

Personal Spending
+0.3% vs +0.5% consensus, prior +0.6%

Personal
Income +0.7% vs +0.5% consensus, prior +0.6%

PCE Deflator y/y +2.4%

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com