These 2 Stocks Bucked The Trend Today — Here’s Why
Stocks were lower on the first trading day of the
year as investors consolidated their gains. Traders expecting new
money flowing into the market may have been surprised with with poor
performance.
Google
(
GOOG |
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PowerRating)
and Yahoo
(
YHOO |
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PowerRating) bucked the trend after Goldman raised estimates on
the two companies.
Wal-Mart
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WMT |
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PowerRating) sees same store sales for December up 3%. Walgreens {WAG|WAG] posted a 30% increase in quarterly profits.
The ISM Manufacturing Index was 58.6, slightly higher than expected. Construction spending in
November fell 0.4%.
Small cap stocks have outperformed large cap stocks for 6 years in a row.
From 1/1/00 to 12/31/04, the SPX fell 17.5%, but 315 of the 500 were higher.
Reason: the largest cap stocks had the biggest declines. For example,
Microsoft fell 52% during that period, and GE fell 24%.
Brokers are generally bullish on 2005. Piper Jaffray expects the S&P to rise
15.5%, Smith Barney, +7.3%, Morgan Stanley, +3.0%. UBS sees a decline of 5%. The
average of all brokers is +5%. Thomson Financial expects 10.5% earnings growth in
2005.
Of note, the S&P rose 7.3% in 2004; the first 3 trading days of the year, it
gained 7.1%. IPOs came back in 2004, with 250 pricing; this compares with just
85 in 2003.
Strong sectors were:Â Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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PowerRating) +0.21%.
Weak sectors were: Â Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
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PowerRating) -4.36%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
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PowerRating)
-3.67%, Gold
(
XAU.X |
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PowerRating) -3.72%.
Â
| Dow | -53.58 | 10,729.43 |
| S&P 500 | -9.85 | 1202.07 |
| Nasdaq | -23.29 | 2,152.15 |
The dollar was +0.39 at
81.24
Crude Oil was -1.25 at
42.20
Gold was -4.00 to 429.60
2.1 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 892 | Up Vol 293 |
| Declining | 2439 | Down Vol 1013 |
| Ratio | 2.26 | 2.07 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 897 | Up Vol 532 |
| Declining | 2277 | Down Vol 1442 |
| Ratio | 1.86 | 1.89 |
Stocks in the News
Ingram Micro [IM|IM ] was the subject of a positive article in
Barron’s.
Boston Scientific
(
BSX |
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PowerRating) was downgraded to neutral at JP
Morgan.
Stryker
(
SYK |
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PowerRating) was upgraded to overweight at JP Morgan.
Pfizer’s
(
PFE |
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PowerRating) Lyrica is likely to be classified as a controlled
substance, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Brice Wightman