These 5 Stocks May Benefit Under The New Budget
Stocks
recovered from early morning losses. The Institute
of Supply Management index rose by 0.2 to 63.6 — the best number since
1983. President Bush sent Congress a $2.4 trillion budget for 2005, including
cuts in domestic programs and increased military spending which would increase
by 7%, excluding money needed to keep troops in Iraq that will create a $521
billion deficit. Bush’s $401.7 billion military budget increases spending on
missile defense and on modernizing the Army, and companies such as Lockheed
Martin
(
LMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), General Dynamics
(
GD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Raytheon
(
RTN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Northrup Grumman
(
NOC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) stand to benefit from the increased spending.
Dow Component International
Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $48 million on sales of
$6.5 billion. Halliburton
(
HAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is under investigation once again for
overcharging the US military for the number of meals it served in Kuwait. The
company’s contractor billed 42,042 meals a day on average, but served only
14,053 meals, a monthly price difference of $3.5 million.
| Dow | +38.08 |
10526.26 |
| S&P 500 |
+7.75 | 1138.90 |
| Nasdaq | +12.69 |
2078.84 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.01%, Health Products
(
RXP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.50%, Healthcare
(
HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.24%, and Telecoms
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.17%
Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.20%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.27%.
Economic news releases included
Personal income up 0.2%, with Personal Spending up 0.4%, both in line with
estimates. Construction spending numbers were disappointing at +0.4% and the ISM
index rose to 63.6.
10-year Notes are -25
at 113 115
The dollar
is +0.31 at 87.73
Gold is -5.10 at 397.80
Crude Oil is +0.19 at
32.29
Volume is 680,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 890,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1751 | Up Vol 409 |
| Declining | 1367 | Down Vol 241 |
| Ratio | 1.31 | 1.70 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1643 | Up Vol 560 |
| Declining | 1384 | Down Vol 268 |
| Ratio | 1.22 | 2.13 |
Top Dow stocks are:
SBC Comm [SBC|SBC],
+2.89% at 26.28, Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.08% at 42.617, Wal-Mart
[WMT|WMT], +1.78% at
54.84, American Express [AXP|AXP]
+1.56% at 52.61.
Stocks in the news:
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded by Deutsche Bank
to sell on a loss of confidence in Ford’s ability to meet its mid-decade
earnings. The auto maker’s price target was also lowered, to $12.
ScanSoft
(
SSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) jumped 10% on raised
fourth-quarter earnings and revenue numbers. It now expects to earn 5 cents a
share on revenue of $46 million. The company cited strong sales of its
SpeechWorks and imaging products.
Time Warner Telecom
(
TWTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a
fourth-quarter loss of $21.3 million on revenue of $169.4 million, due to lower
revenue from WorldCom and a decrease in inter-carrier fees.
Boston Scientific
(
BSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
fourth-quarter earnings of $137 million on revenue of $939 million, well ahead
of analysts’ consensus.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com