The Expanding Economy And What That Might Mean To You


Stocks are flat this mid-day with continued positive earnings news.

Alan Greenspan spoke today and said that the US economy has entered a period of
more vigorous expansion and may require higher interest rates to keep inflation
in check. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Applications Index fell for the
fifth straight week

as 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.84%
from 5.77% the week before
.

Ford Motor
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posted
earnings that more than doubled to $1.95 billion on strong gains in its
automotive business. Ford was able to slash costs by $600 million. The company
upped full-year earnings forecasts to $1.55 a share. Motorola
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surprised Wall Street by earning $609 million with revenue up a whopping 42% to
$8.6 million, well ahead of estimates. MOT is trading up 18%. Its handset
division experienced a 67% increase in sales with profits that more than
tripled. The semiconductor unit reversed course and went back to the black,
earning $ 107 million with sales up 21% to $1.4 billion.

Dow +3.58
10318.32
S&P 500
+5.92
1124.89
Nasdaq
+10.45

2019.01

The day’s leading sectors are
Healthcare Provider

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+2.32%, Networking
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+1.48%, Healthcare
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, +1.31%, Semis
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+1.34%.

Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs

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-1.31%, Gold and Silver
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-1.06%,

No Economic news releases
today.

10-year Notes are -100
at 110 250

The dollar
is +0.57 at 91.32

Gold is -0.37 at 394.60

Crude Oil is -0.40 at
36.10

Volume is 832,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,098,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
1301 Up Vol 454
Declining 1849 Down Vol 369
Ratio 1.39 1.22
Nasdaq
Advancing
1569 Up Vol 623
Declining
1412 Down Vol 396
Ratio 1.11 1.55

Top Dow stocks are:

Kodak
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+2.84% at
25.72, Merck
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+2.04% at 47.12, SBC Communications
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+1.63% at 24.70, General Motors
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+1.36% at 48.43,

Stocks in the news:

Teradyne
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posted net income of $40.2 million
with sales up at $430.6 on strong demand for its test and measurement equipment.
For the next quarter, it expects earnings to reach 35 cents with sales exceeding
$500 million.

Kodak
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earnings more than tripled from strong
digital camera sales and a declining dollar. Profits rose to $28 million with
revenue up to $2.92 billion.

United Technologies
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earned $579 million in
the first-quarter with sales up $ 29% to $8.6 billion, both ahead of Wall Street
consensus.

Warren Buffett was re-elected to the Coca-Cola
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board after the company reported earnings that rose to $1.13 billion with sales
up to $5.08 billion. Its international sales was strong, with a 4% volume growth
in Europe, 14% 16% in Argentina and in China.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com