This Was The Catalyst For The Rally
Stocks
were higher, with the Dow at four-month highs and the Nasdaq at eleven-month
highs. Despite
some early morning weakness brought on by an SEC investigation into Siebel
Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and lower-than-expected weekend sales from Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
the major indices staged an impressive turnaround and took out their May 6
highs. Tech stocks are
leading the pack today after Lehman Brothers upgraded networking giant Cisco
Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). However the US dollar continues to weaken and is at another
four-year low against the euro. Bonds are also continuing their run.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 122.13 to 8,726.73. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose 11.70 to 945.11. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 21.25 to 1541.40.
The day’s leading sectors are Networking
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.44%, Biotechs
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.17%, Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+3.09%, and Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.21%..
Weak today are: None.
No economic news to report
today.
The 10-year U.S. Note
is +085 at 116 315.
The dollar is down 0.44
at 94.72
Gold was off .5 at
351.4.
Crude Oil +0.03 at
27.12.
Volume is
1,368,254,000 on
the NYSE, and at 1,771,739,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is decisively
positive, with NYSE advancing issues over declining issues by a ratio of
2.15, and up volume over down volume by a 4.63 ratio. Nasdaq advancing issues
over declining issues are at 1.80, and up volume over down volume is at a
6.5 ratio.
Top Dow stocks are:
SBC Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +.97at
24.64, Altria Group
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.40 at 33.10, International Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +.81 at 37.34, and American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +.62 at 40.42.
Stocks in the news:
Apparel retailer Ann Taylor
Stores
(
ANN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) jumped to a five-month high today after Prudential upgraded
the stock to “buy” from “hold.” Prudential based the upgrade
on valuation and raised their 12-month price target to $28.
Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
jumped almost 5% and is near a 52-week high. Lehman Brothers upgraded the issue from
“equal weight” to “over weight.”
Phillip Morris
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is up over 3% after a positive Barron’s article. Barron’s believes that the
stock is “cheap.”
Siebel Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is off 2.5%. The company is under investigation by the SEC to determine if fair
disclosure regulations were broken. Shares of Siebel jumped 8% one day after a
dinner attended by analysts, investors, and company executives.