Trading Up Sharply After The Close…
Blue Chips
closed higher Tuesday after an upgrade on Caterpillar and crude prices fell for
a third day.
Oil sank below $46, closing at 45.28; the
last time crude was down 3 days was in June. Technology stocks are lower after a
downgrade on Cisco. Additionally, Piper Jaffray lowered its semi cap-ex
projections. Existing home sales for July were off 2.9% at 6.72M. New home sales
are scheduled to be released tomorrow; analysts are expecting 1.29 million. The
National Association of Realtors said there is no housing bubble.
According to Fortune, the five fastest
growing companies are: InVision Technologies
(
INVN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), eResearch
Technology
(
ERES |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), New Century Financial
(
NCEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Central
European Distribution
(
CEDC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and eBay
(
EBAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
The Stock Trader’s Almanac shows that in 6 of the last 7 years, the last
5 days of August have been down.
High fuel costs are impacting the airlines;
American will pay an additional $700 million on fuel this year, United, $500
million more. Southwest and JetBlue do the most hedging
Fed Governor Bernanke said the US economy
is better able to withstand higher oil prices than it was 30 years ago.
After the close, OmniVision
(
OVTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.02 and beat slightly on revenues. H&R Block
(
HRB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed by
0.18 and guided in-line. Sigma Designs
(
SIGM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02.
Hughes Supply
(
HUG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.11 and guided higher. Ditech
(
DITC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
by 0.06 and guided higher; the stock traded up sharply after the close.
| Dow | +25.58 | 10098.63 |
| S&P 500 | +0.43 | 1096.11 |
| Nasdaq | -1.81 | 1836.89 |
Strong today were: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.43%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.71%, Retail
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.60%, Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.62%.
Weak were: Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.51%, Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.28%.
10-year Notes were +010 at 112 135
The dollar
was +0.38 at 89.43
Gold was -4.90 at 402.20
Crude Oil was -0.77 at
45.28
Volume was 1. billion on
the NYSE and 1. billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1854 | Up Vol 533 |
| Declining | 1476 | Down Vol 525 |
| Ratio | 1.25 | 1.01 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1665 | Up Vol 510 |
| Declining | 1399 | Down Vol 709 |
| Ratio | 1.19 | 1.39 |
Stocks in the News
Heinz
(
HNZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) met estimates, coming in at
0.55; this was down from 0.60 a year ago.
Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said they were running on
plan for August, seeing flat to +2%.
Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was lowered at UBS, to a
price target of $20. CSCO distributed 162 million common options to employees.
Yellow Roadway
(
YELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said that Q3
earnings would be “at least” be in the range of $1.20 – $1.25.
Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded at
Goldman.
Michael Dell bought 18% of the convertible
bonds of Wild Oats Markets
(
OATS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Kraft
(
KFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its quarterly dividend
by 14%, to 20.5 cents.
Gap
(
GPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is looking at international
expansion.
Brice Wightman