TradingMarkets’ 7 Stocks You Need To Know For Friday

Stocks fell Thursday,
with the Dow off for the fourth straight day, although a program-driven rally in
the final 15 minutes lessened the losses
. Dallas Fed President
Richard Fisher again warned on inflation. This, combined with uncertainty about
the upcoming earnings season and concern about energy prices, sent stock prices
lower. The Semiconductor HOLDRs
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
have also fallen for four straight
days. Crude oil fell to a 2-month low.

Year to date, the Dow is off 4.6% and the Nasdaq
is down 4.2%.

Jobless claims for the week of 10/1 rose 21,000
to 390,000

Now, here are a few stocks to watch on Friday:

Accenture
(
ACN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.02 and beat
on revenues.

American Eagle
(
AEOS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced an
additional 2.5 million share stock buyback.

Meritage
(
MTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reiterated last week’s
guidance of $8.25 -$8.50 for 2005 and said the dollar value of sales orders has
risen 51%. Watch the other homebuilders like, KBH, LEN, PHM, too.

Oxford Industries
(
OXM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.18
but issued mixed guidance for the second quarter and for 2006.

ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed in a doji
(indecision) just above its 200-day moving average. I wrote this one up last
night. It appeared to be trying today, but still closed down.

Schlumberger
(
SLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
also closed in a
doji.

The Oil Service HOLDRs
(
OIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
are down
five days in a row and due for a bounce, statistically speaking. Note also the
volume increase this week.

Brice Wightman