The Latest Legal Developments On Wall Street
Stocks are
weaker today as investors wait for earnings reports to begin. General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has no plans to make dual power-train
system hybrid cars, despite Toyota’s
(
TM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) success with its Prius. GM said it doesn’t make environmental or economical sense to make
such cars and it would focus instead on hybrid SUVs and light trucks. Retailer Circuit City
(
CC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 10% after reporting a 2% drop in
December same-store sales, with sales of LCD plasma TVs offsetting weaker areas of home audio and video game hardware. Duke
Energy
(
DUK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is expected to write off $3.3 billion in merchant
energy business; sell plants in the Southeast US; end its joint venture with ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating); and pull out
of European and Australian markets. Investors pushed Duke up on its
commitment to retain its current dividend of $1.10 per share. Former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow may be negotiating a plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors. New York State
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer may file a lawsuit against former NYSE Chairman
Richard Grasso to force him to give back part of his $140 million compensation
package.
| Dow | -34.84 | 10504.21 |
| S&P 500 | -2.27 | 1121.13 |
| Nasdaq | +6.21 | 2063.48 |
The day’s leading sectors are Networking
(
GIP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.41%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.00%,
Disk
Drive
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.60%, Utility
(
GHA.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.68%, and Technology [TXX.X|TXX.X]
+0.64%.
Weak today is Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.41%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.32%.
Economic news releases included
Factory orders dropping 1.4%, and ISM numbers at 58.6.
10-year Notes are
+35 at 112 100
The dollar is +0.50 at 86.43
Gold is -1.20 at 423.31
Crude Oil is -0.14 at
32.90
Volume is 745,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,071,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1479 | Up Vol 352 |
| Declining | 1622 | Down Vol 354 |
| Ratio | 1.97 | 2.30 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1548 | Up Vol 613 |
| Declining | 1486 | Down Vol 381 |
| Ratio | 1.72 | 2.17 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.46% at 33.70, Disney
[DIS|DIS], +1.23% at
24.38, Boeing |BA|BA],
+1.16% at 42.41, and Home Depot [HD|HD],
+1.10% at 35.82.
Stocks in the news:
Brookstone
(
BKST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 10% after reporting a 12%
increase for November and December same-store sales. It also upped
its earnings outlook by 10 cents to earn at least $1.25 a share.
Guitar Center
(
GTRC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 12% after reporting a
18% increase in revenue for the fourth quarter. Revenue was strong at $396
million, up from $335 the year-ago period.
Nortel Networks
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is up 12% after
winning a contract from Verizon
(
VZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
to provide VoIP equipment. UBS upgraded NT to “buy.”
Darden
(
DRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) restaurants lost more than 8% after
announcing a 12% drop in sales at its Red Lobster franchise. Red Lobster’s
President Dick Rivera resigned. Chairman and CEO Joe Lee will assume responsibilities
until a new president can be named.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com