The Gold Bugs Were Excited Today…Here’s Why
Stocks rose
Wednesday, making it three winning sessions in a row.
The market fell early on, but was in rally mode from 11:35 to the close. It was
information overload as a deluge of reports were released today. Overall,
reaction was fairly muted with light pre-holiday trading. Jobless
claims fell to a three-year low as the four-week average of initial claims
dropped 10,000 to 358,750. Durable goods shot up 3.3% in October, showing
strength in the US manufacturing sector.
Three indices made all-time highs: the S&P Small Cap, S&P MidCap, and the Value
Line Arithmetic Index. Nasdaq short interest is down 13% this year; this as the
index is up 45%. Gold jumped briefly over $400/oz after fumes overcame six New
York subway workers. Police later said the incident was not terrorist-related.
Gold closed at $398.
Bank One
(
ONE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said
it expects the SEC to investigate its mutual fund advisor as part of the
continuing probe. JP Morgan
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has agreed to purchased Citigroup’s
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Electronic Financial Services
unit for $380 million. The unit provides government-issued benefits payments and
prepaid stored-value cards.
| Dow | +15.63 | 9779.57 |
| S&P 500 | +4.56 | 1058.45 |
| Nasdaq | +10.27 | 1953.31 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Amex Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.01%, Gold and Silver
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.92%, Insurance
(
$IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.37%, and Internet
(
$ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.42%.
Weak today were Airlines [XAL.X|XAL.X]
-0.26%, Retail
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -0.36% and Drugs
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-0.16%.
Economic news releases for
today included higher durable orders at 3.3% and initial claims that fell to
351K. Personal income went up 0.4%, and personal spending was flat at
0%. Revised Michigan sentiment came in at 93.7, the Chicago PMI was at 64.1, the
help wanted index went up to 37 and new home sales were down to 1105K.
10-year Notes were -140
at 113 020.
The dollar
was -0.88 at 90.69.
Gold was +0.64 at 398.
Crude Oil was -0.06 at
32.86.
Volume was
1,105,259,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,524,709,000 on the Nasdaq.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2144 | Up Vol 798 |
| Declining | 1061 | Down Vol 295 |
| Ratio | 2.02 |
1.36 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1830 | Up Vol 1045 |
| Declining | 1342 | Down Vol 438 |
| Ratio | 1.36 |
2.38 |
Stocks in the news:
Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported poor
results in trials of Avastin, its experimental colon cancer drug. DNA closed at
83.78, -0.59.
TechData
(
TECD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
opened strong after reporting a 15% increase in revenue despite lower profits.
Net income fell to $26.5 million on sales of $4.16 billion. The company expects
fourth-quarter earnings to be in the range of 50 cents to 55 cents and sales to
reach $4.5 billion.
Praecis
(
PRCS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
received FDA approval for Plenasix, used to treat advanced symptomatic prostate
cancer. Shares rallied up 10% on the news.
Starbucks
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported sales of $387 million for the month of November 2003, with same-store
sales up 11%.
Remember, on Friday the NYSE
closes at 1:00 PM and Sponge Bob rings the closing bell.
Happy Thanksgiving!
bricew@tradingmarkets.com