This Stock Jumped 45% Today, Thanks To Yahoo!

Stocks
closed off the first-quarter on a downside.

For the first quarter, homebuilders and oil service
stocks outperformed the airlines and semis. Japan approved Johnson &
Johnson’s

(
JNJ |
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PowerRating)
Cypher drug-coat stent, used to open clogged arteries.
Analysts at JP Morgan expects sales in Japan to reach $875 million. Monsanto
(
MON |
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recorded higher earnings of $154 million on increased corn seed sales,
with revenue jumping 15% to $1.5 billion.

Trump Hotels and Casinos
(
DJT |
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PowerRating)

were lower on auditors’ concern at its high debt ratios and ability to pay
back loans. DJT is strapped with $1.8 billion of debt and has yet to turn a
profit over the past 8 years. Rediff.com of India
(
REDF |
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soared 45%
after announcing a partnership with Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
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.

Factory orders were weak at
+0.3%, much lower than the consensus of +1.5%. OPEC decided to cut April
production output by 1 million barrels despite crude prices reaching 13-year
highs and gasoline prices hovering at 18-year highs. The Nikkei closed off its
fiscal year with a 47% gain, the strongest in 30 years.

AaiPharma
(
AAII |
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will not file its 2003 annual report within the 15-day extension period. This
may lead to delisting of its stock from the Nasdaq. Electronics retailer Best
Buy

(
BBY |
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PowerRating)
posted earnings of $469 million and revenue up 21% to $8.4
billion. Earnings of 32 cents are forecast, with same-store sales up 8%.

Dow
-24.00

10357.70
S&P 500
-0.79
1126.21
Nasdaq -6.41
1994.22

The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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PowerRating)
-2.25%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.12%, Oil
Index
(
XOI.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+ 1.10%, Energy
(
DXE.X |
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PowerRating)
+1.01% and Natural
Gas

(
XNG.X |
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+0.92%.

Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
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News |
PowerRating)
-1.02% and Software
(
GSO.X |
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PowerRating)
-0.76%.

Economic news releases today
included factory orders that missed the 1.5% consensus and Chicago PMI dropping
to 57.6..

10-year Notes are +180
at 115 130

The dollar
is -0.83 at 87.95

Gold is -6.00 at 427.70

Crude oil is +0.05 at
35.13

Volume is 1,448,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,818,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is mixed.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
2005 Up Vol 803
Declining 1260 Down Vol 619
Ratio 1.59 1.29
Nasdaq
Advancing
1728 Up Vol 660
Declining
1434 Down Vol 1096
Ratio 1.21 1.65

Stocks in the news:

Retailer Circuit City
(
CC |
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PowerRating)

will buy InterTan
(
ITN |
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PowerRating)
for $284 million. The company also reported
better earnings on lower expenses with revenue +2% to $3.25 billion.

Merrill Lynch and
Smith Barney raised its
ratings on Eli Lilly
(
LLY |
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PowerRating)
citing an under-appreciated drug pipeline
and better growth outlook than competitors.

Qlogic
(
QLGC |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lowered its
fourth-quarter outlook citing lower demand. It now expects to earn 36 cents a
share with revenue to be around $128 million. Several brokerages downgraded the
stock which dropped 22%.

Usana Health Science
(
USNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

lowered first-quarter earnings to 29 cents a share due to higher-than-expected
costs, including entering the Mexican market. For the full year, earnings are
expected to be around $250 million.


bricew@tradingmarkets.com