Tech Earnings And Upgrades Drive Stocks Higher

Stocks are higher after good reports from two
technology companies.

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 is up almost 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, driving crude futures higher.

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

Strong sectors are:  Computer Hardware

(
HWI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.88%      Semis

(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.44%     Disk Drives

(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.25%   

Weak sectors are:   Gold 

(
XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.71%         Oil Service

(
OSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.93%   

Brice Wightman