This Sector Was Hot On Thursday
Stocks were mixed
in thin trading as investors sold stocks
before the long weekend.
Renewed fighting in Iraq added to the worries. Before the open, the market was
sparked by unemployment claims that came in at 328,000 — a three year low.
General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of $4.32 billion on revenue of
$33.4 billion. Year over year earnings were up 8% and the company is optimistic
for next year.
Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of $0.14
a share, 3 cents ahead of consensus and announced a 2 for 1 stock split.
The stock rose to a three-year high. Advertising revenue helped increase sales
to $758 million from $283 million a year ago for the same period. The company
said the increase also came from revenue generating partnerships. The search
sector was hot today with Infospace
(
INSP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +5.45%, Doubleclick
(
DCLK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.92% and AskJeeves
(
ASKJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.01%. With the sector hot,
traders are speculating when Google may go public.
National security adviser
Condoleezza Rice testified before the 9/11 commission on al Qaeda saying there
was no silver bullet that could have prevented the attack. She denied Richard
Clarke’s assertion that Bush wanted him to find an Iraqi connection to 9/11.
Congress signed a bill expected
to save corporations $80 billion; the bill would provide pension accounting
relief to approximately 31,000 companies, now goes to the President.
| Dow | -38.12 |
10442.03 |
| S&P 500 |
-1.20 | 1139.33 |
| Nasdaq | +2.62 |
2052.86 |
The day’s leading sectors were
internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +4.71%, Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.97%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.89%, and Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 0.88%.
Weak today were Retail
(
RTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.46%, Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.20%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.15%.
Economic news releases included
a much bigger drop in weekly initial claims at 328,000 and wholesale inventories
that jumped 1.2%.
10-year Notes were -075
at 112 195
The dollar
was +0.70 at 88.97
Gold was -3.40 at 419.31
Crude Oil was +0.98 at
37.14
Volume was
1,191,100,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,692,029,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1198 | Up Vol 485 |
| Declining | 2042 | Down Vol 688 |
| Ratio | 1.70 | 1.41 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1470 | Up Vol 868 |
| Declining |
1696 | Down Vol 801 |
| Ratio | 1.15 | 1.08 |
Stocks in the news:
Interactive Pictures
(
IPIX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) entered into a reseller agreement with Abstract Security for its
CommandView cameras. IPIX is up 60% today, having risen 500% over the past two
weeks.
Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
same-store sales rising 6% on strong demand for clothing and Easter products.
Total sales reached $25.13 billion.
Computer maker Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is
expecting a 25% rise in unit shipments and raised its first-quarter revenue
forecasts to $11.4 billion from $11.2 billion.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com