This Dow Component Predicts Tremendous Growth
Stocks were down slightly Wednesday,
a day after the
Dow touched 10,000 and Fed decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 1% but
changed its stance on inflation to neutral. The S&P fell for the third day in
four. Autozone
(
AZO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped 12% after reporting lower-than-expected same-store sales. Net
income came in at $121.7 million on revenue of $1.28 billion. Shares of
homebuilders fell after Washington Mutual
(
WM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its earnings
outlook due to a drop in the mortgage lending business. Mortgage applications
are at an 18-month low. Gold continued its remarkable up-trend, climbing to
$413 an ounce. The Dollar had its biggest gain vs. the yen in three weeks; Japan
sold its currency to protect exports. Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is meeting with analysts today and
tomorrow to announce new product developments and strategic alliances; no
earnings updates are expected.
| Dow | -1.56 | 9921.86 |
| S&P 500 | -1.13 | 1059.05 |
| Nasdaq | -3.67 | 1904.65 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Semis [SOX.X|SOX.X] +1.21%, Tech
(
TXX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.74%, Computer Technology
(
XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.71%.
Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs [HUI.X|HUI.X] -6.02% and Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -4.44%, .
No Economic news releases
today.
The dollar
was +0.24 at 88.85.
Crude Oil was +0.19 at
31.95.
Volume
was 1,412,429,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,953,710,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was Negative
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1277 | Up Vol 515 |
| Declining | 2025 | Down Vol 880 |
| Ratio | 1.58 | 1.70 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1073 | Up Vol 850 |
| Declining | 2098 | Down Vol 1091 |
| Ratio | 2.01 | 1.28 |
Stocks in the news:
Walt Disney Co.
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said it expects 30% earnings growth in the current fiscal year. DIS closed up
.32 at 22.41.
Freddie Mac
(
FRE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
agreed to pay a penalty of $125 million for manipulating its earnings. Freddie
Mac had underreported earnings by $4.4 billion for the period 2000 to 2002.
Verizon
(
VZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced plans to take a
$2.8 billion hit for severance payments and an additional $900 million charge
for pension settlements. Most of the charges will be taken in the first quarter
of 2004.
Electronic software maker Digital Driver
(
DRIV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was upgraded to outperform by Steve Jue of RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Jue expects
DRIV to post modest upside fourth-quarter numbers due to a healthy business
environment. Shares are up 9%.
Glass disc maker Photronics
(
PLAB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted net income of $3.1 million on sales of $91.5 million. It lost $10.3
million the previous year.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com