This Is What The Brokers Expect in 2005
Stocks are lower as investors are consolidating
their gains.
Wal-Mart sees same store sales for December up 3%. Walgreens
(
WAG |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 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%.
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 are:Â Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.94%, Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.62%.
Weak sectors are: Â Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.52%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.79%, Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.70%.
Â
| Dow | -8.86 | 10,774.15 |
| S&P 500 | -4.99 | 1206.93 |
| Nasdaq | -15.76 | 2,159.68 |
The dollar is +0.50 at
81.35
Crude Oil is -1.70 at
41.75.
Gold is -5.00 to 428.60
1.24 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 975 | Up Vol 223 |
| Declining | 2209 | Down Vol 463 |
| Ratio | 2.26 | 2.07 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1066 | Up Vol 399 |
| Declining | 1985 | Down Vol 757 |
| 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 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded to neutral at JP
Morgan.
Stryker
(
SYK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded to overweight at JP Morgan.
Goldman Sachs raised its revenue and EBITDA estimates on Google
(
GOOG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Yahoo
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Pfizer’s
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Lyrica is likely to be classified as a controlled
substance, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Brice Wightman