The Latest Stock To Fall Victim To The Low Carb Fad
Stocks fell Friday on continued worries of high crude prices and fears of
imminent interest-rate hikes.
Semiconductors were the bright spot, with
the
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closing +4.53%.
Job growth was strong with 288,000 new jobs
being added to payrolls, well ahead of the expected 165,000. The two-month
total is 625K, the biggest gain since March/April 2000. An updated report from
the Department of Labor showed that for February, 83,000 new jobs were created
instead of 46,000, with 333,700 for March instead of the original 308,000. Treasury prices tumbled on the employment news with the 10-year treasury yield
peaking at 4.76%, a level not seen since the summer of 2002.
For the first time since 1990,
oil prices broke through the
psychological $40 barrier over security concerns in the mid-east. OPEC’s
President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the rising
price of crude was beyond OPEC’s control. The US accounts for about 45% of
global gas consumption.
The FDA denied a request by Maker Barr Pharmaceuticals
(
BRL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to sell
its over-the-counter "Morning-After" pill despite recommendations from FDA’s own
scientific advisers.
| Dow | -123.92 |
10117.34 |
| S&P 500 |
-15.30 |
1098.69 |
| Nasdaq | -19.78 |
1917.96 |
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) were strong today, +1.00%.
Weak today were Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.73%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.38%,
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -4.51%, Homebuilders
(
HGX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.66%,
and Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.19%.
Economic news releases today
included Nonfarm payrolls much stronger-than-expected at 288,000; the
unemployment rate dipping 0.1% to 5.6%; hourly earnings rising to 0.3%
with the average workweek at 33.7 and wholesale inventories up 0.6%.
The FTC gave Viacom’s
Sumner Redstone the green light to take a controlling interest in Midway
Games
(
MWY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
10-year Notes were -1 11
at 108 155
The dollar
was +1.26 at 91.35
Gold was down 9.20 at
379.20
Crude oil was +0.28 at
39.65
Volume was 1.58 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.53 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
NYSE |
Issues |
|
| Advancing |
259 | Up Vol 182 |
| Declining | 3184 | Down Vol 1454 |
| Ratio | 12.3 |
7.98 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
828 | Up Vol 593 |
| Declining |
2341 | Down Vol 1023 |
| Ratio | 2.82 |
1.72 |
Stocks in the news:
Krispy Kreme
(
KKD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell sharply after warning that
it will miss first-quarter and 2005 earnings targets;
saying the popularity of the low-carb diet has hurt
demand. It now expects to earn 23 cents for next quarter and $1.05 for FY 2005.
For the week, KKD lost 31%.
Spanish broadcasting network Univision Communications
(
UVN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings that more than doubled with net income at $31.6 million on
revenue of $352.9 million.
The tobacco industry got dose of bad news after a federal
judge refused to throw out the $289 billion penalties the government is seeking.
Some companies involved in the suit include: Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), R.J.
Reynolds
(
RJR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and British
American Tobacco
(
BTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
According to a report from Reuters, Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is expected to
cancel the development of its Tejas and Jayhawk processors due to problems with
the chip’s power consumption.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com