TradingMarkets Mid-Day Movers

Wednesday’s session has seen a continuation
of Monday and Tuesday’s

lackluster trading.
The major averages are trading in a narrow range,
either side of the unchanged mark.

The weekly EIA Petroleum Status Report showed a large rise in
inventories. Crude Oil inventories were up 4.5 Mln barrels while Gasoline
inventories rose 4.2 Mln barrels (report).

Energy futures are trading lower along with the energy sectors. A number of oil
company executives are giving testimony on Capitol Hill today as the politicians
(in a typically short sighted move) weigh the possibility of imposing a windfall
profits tax.

The US Dollar Index is trading higher, while Treasuries are
giving back most of yesterday’s gains.

Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is scheduled to report first quarter
results for fiscal 2006 after the market closes today (click
here
for an in-depth analysis).

AIG
(
AIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced it will restate financial results from
2002 onwards. The company plans to raise net income by $500 Mln. AIG also stated
that catastrophe losses for the third quarter will be $1.57 Bln, primarily due
to hurricanes Katrina and Rita (full
story
).

For more stories as they happen go to our
Breaking
News
section.

Stocks On The Move

GM
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was the worst performing Dow component on Tuesday
and is repeating in that distinction today. The stock is now down 3.8%, testing
a low set in April. DuPont
(
DD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
are also weak, each
with losses of about 1.2%.

There are no blue chips currently a gain of more than 1%.
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is up nearly 1%, while Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
United Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
are each modestly higher.


Dow
-0.48 10,539.24

NASDAQ
-2.69 2169.38

S&P 500
+0.09 1218.68
NYSE NASDAQ

Volume
857,359,000 658,652,000

Advances
1410 1220

Declines
1638 1550

Up Volume
354 242

Down Volume
393 346

New Hi’s
52 61

New Lo’s
89 43


Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors

Gold and Silver
(
XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Disk Drive
(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Gold Bugs
(
HUI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Oil
(
XOI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Airline
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Natural Gas
(
XNG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

Ashton Dorkins

ashtond@tradingmarkets.com