TGT Up 9% – This Is Why
Stocks
have reversed courses this mid-day. It was one year ago today the indices
bottomed. The Nasdaq is up 500 points or 40% from
the low last year. Most sectors
are down with the exception of the semis with Transmeta
(
TMTA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
leading the way, on an announcement of its early release of one of its chips.
Greenspan testified before the House Education Committee, warning against
protectionism policies. ImClone
(
IMCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) filed suit against Sam Waksal
in an attempt to collect more than $21 million for unpaid income taxes they paid
for Sam Waksal. Initial claims were revised to 341,000, down 6,000, with the
4-wk average down to 345K from 353K. Retail sales rose by 0.6%, the largest
increase since November
After the close, Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is expected to report Q3; analysts are looking for $0.12.
| Dow | +0.96 | 10297.79 |
| S&P 500 |
-0.75 | 1123.28 |
| Nasdaq | +10.84 |
1974.99 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.73%, Retails
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.35%,
Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.34%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.29%.
Weak today are Oil
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.52%, Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.47%.
Economic news releases today
included export prices ex-ag that rose by 0.6%, Import prices ex-oil that was up
a disappointing 0.4%. Initial claims were 6K better at 341K. Retail sales rose
by 0.6%.
10-year Notes are +55 at
117 155
Dollar is -0.22 at 88.80
Gold is -1.60 at 398.70
Crude Oil is +0.07 at
36.17
Euro is -1.02 at 122.34
Volume is 850,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,021,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSEÂ | Issues | Â |
| Advancing | 1254 | Up Vol      249 |
| Declining | 1925 | Down Vol  563 |
| Ratio | 1.54 | 2.31 |
| Nasdaq |  |  |
| Advancing | 1296 | Up Vol     1296 |
| Declining | 1723 | Dow Vol   1723 |
| Ratio | 1.40 | 1.30 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.30% at 34.60, Du
Pont [DD|DD],
+1.14%Â at 42.43, McDonalds [MCD|MCD]
+1.00% at 29.26, Johnson and Johnson [JNJ|JNJ],
+0.84% at 52.20.
Stocks in the news:
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is delaying the
release of its SQL Server database and Visual Studio studio by 6 months until
the second half of 2005 instead of the end of 2004, impacting renewals of long
term licensing contracts.
Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lept 8% after hiring
Goldman Sachs to look into possible sales of Mervyn’s and Marshall Fields units.
Quicksilver
(
ZQK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported first-quarter earnings
that rose to $9.2 million on revenue of $256.1 million. It expects 2004 earnings
to reach $1.22 on revenue of $1.1 billion.
Yellow Roadway
(
YELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised first-quarter 2004
forecast saying it expects to reach all February profitability targets. Earnings
are expected to reach 0.30 for the next quarter. Trucking companies are strong
today.