This Sector Is Still On Fire
Stocks
are mixed on disappointing earnings guidance. Housing
starts rose by 1.7% to 2.08 million, the fastest rate since 1984. Merrill
Lynch
(
MER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) recorded a record $1.2 billion profit for the fourth
quarter. Investment banking business and sales of stocks and bonds contributed
to the strong numbers. Net revenue for the quarter rose 17% to $4.9 billion. For
fiscal year 2003, net income came in at $4 billion on revenues of $20.2
billion. Lucent
(
LU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in the black for the second straight quarter,
recording a $349 million profit and beating analyst consensus. Sales rose by 9%
to $2.26 billion, but the company did not raise its 2004 outlook. Seagate
(
STX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned that it might miss third-quarter and full-year estimates
because of high inventories and lower profit margins.
| Dow | +38.82 |
10567.36 |
| S&P 500 |
+2.39 | 1141.15 |
| Nasdaq | -16.99 |
2130.99 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.90%, Utility
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.79%, Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.72%, and Healthcare
(
HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.68%.
Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -4.61%, and Hardware
(
GHA.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.65%.
Economic news releases today
included housing starts rising to 2.088 million, and building permits that rose
to 1.924.
10-year Notes are 25 at
114 035
The dollar
is -0.48 at 86.50
Gold is -2.30 at 411.70
Crude Oil is -0.44 at
33.87
Volume is 804,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,190,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1668 | Up Vol 372 |
| Declining | 1458 | Down Vol 416 |
| Ratio | 1.14 | 1.11 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1207 | Up Vol 291 |
| Declining | 1879 | Down Vol 874 |
| Ratio | 1.51 | 3.01 |
Top Dow stocks
are:
JP Morgan [JPM|JPM],
+2.13% at 39.94, Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.70% at 52.37,
Citigroup [C|C],
+1.41% at 50.00, and Eastman Kodak [EK|EK],
+1.40% at 26.70.
Stocks
in the news:
JP Morgan
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted strong profits
with higher activity in its Investment Banking unit and fewer bad loans, earning
$1.86 billion on revenue of $7.9 billion.
Charter One Financial
(
CF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) recorded
fourth-quarter earnings of $158.2 million. The company plans to prepay $2.25
billion in Federal Home Loan Bank advances in January. It will also issue
dividends of $0.26 per share.
Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of
$489 million for the quarter on sales of $8 billion. It also received a couple
of upgrades from brokerage houses such as Wells Fargo, Blaylock &
Partners. Analysts do not expect last quarter’s shipment delays to recur, and
forecast higher cell phone sales for the next quarter.
Harley-Davidson
(
HDI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a 22%
fourth-quarter increase to $182 million on revenue of $1.16 billion. A total of
77,000 motorcycles were shipped for the quarter, up 17%. The company reiterated
its 2004 target of 317,000 units.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com