The FOMC Meets This Week–Here’s What The Experts Are Looking For
Stocks are mixed as $60 oil and a Fed meeting this
week puts a damper on trading.
Nike
(
NKE |
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News |
PowerRating) reported 1.30 for Q4, beating by 0.03.
Walgreen
(
WAG |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.02 for Q3; same store sales rose 8.7%
Cardinal Healthcare
(
CAH |
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PowerRating) will buy up to $1 billion of its own
stock and will raise its dividend to 20% of earnings, up from 4%. The company
sees 2006 earnings below estimates.
International Paper
(
IP |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided below Wall Street estimates.
Creative Technology
(
CREAF |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lowered revenue and gross margin
guidance for fiscal 2005. The company sited weaker than expect4ed demand for MP3
players. Look for possible weakness in Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on the news.
Also, a somewhat negative article Barron’s article mentioned iPod
competition.
The FOMC meets this week. Economists are looking for a quarter point
rise–to 3.25%–and no major change in the policy statement. Specifically, the
words “accommodative” and “measured pace” are expected to remain intact. It is
also quarter end and half-year end.
We are closing out Q2 this week. In the next few weeks,
we are entering warnings season.
Strong sectors are:Â Â Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.25%Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Homebuilders Â
(
$HGX.X.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.22%Â Â Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.12%Â Â Â Â
    Â
Weak sectors are: Â Airlines Â
(
$XAL.X.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.26%Â Â Â Â Semis
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.77%Â Â
Gold
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.79%Â
| Dow | -13.58 | 10,311.42 |
| Nasdaq | -3.06 | 2050.21 |
| S&P 500 | +0.92 | 1192.49 |
The dollar is -0.26 at
88.52
Crude Oil is +0.61 at
60.45
Gold is -0.60 at 438.90
611 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1485 | Up Vol 270 |
| Declining | 1584 | Down Vol 344 |
| 1.06 | 1.27 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1118 | Up Vol 209 |
| Declining | 1718 | Down Vol 347 |
| 1.53 | 1.66 |
Stocks in the News
Celgene
(
CELG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will be added to the NDX, effective July 5.
Legg Mason
(
LM |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Petrokazakhstan Inc.
(
PKZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it is in talks regarding possible
mergers or acquisitions.
TiVo has a new CEO, Tom Rogers, who was Vice Chairman.
McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Wendy’s
(
WEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are in focus as a
second Mad Cow case was reported. MCD is trading up 0.13 and Wendy’s is trading
down 0.18.
Brice Wightman