TradingMarkets Mid-Day Movers

  • April 24, 2007
  • Darren Wong

Weak consumer confidence and housing data are
pulling the Nasdaq and S&P 500 lower this morning.  The Dow
is showing gains as IBM jumps over 4% in early trading after
announcing a 33% increase in dividends and an additional $15
billion in share buybacks.

June crude futures rose
fractionally to $65.90 a barrel as traders continue to monitor the
situation in Nigeria.  Traders fear that
continuing violence could threaten supply from Africa’s top crude
producing country. 
June gold futures are down 0.4% to $691.70.

Around Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei Index
closed flat at 17,451.77, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.25% to
3,720.53, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.1% to 20,572.80.

Today’s
PowerRatings
Heat
Map
continues to show slight weakness in several sectors- Energy,
Materials and Construction, and Manufacturing.  One of the
interesting sectors from today’s map is the Drug sector, which
continues to show a divergence between high PowerRatings stocks
and low PowerRatings stocks.  The best performing high PowerRating drug stock
this morning is La Jolla Pharmaceuticals
(
LJPC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which
is up 5% as of 11:50 AM.  The worst
performing low PowerRating drug stock is Trimeris
(
TRMS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
which is down 1.2%. 

Click here for a free trial to our PowerRatings Heat Maps.


Stocks in
Motion

IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Boosts Dividend, Share Buyback Fund; Now
Sees 2007 Adj. EPS Growth Of 12% – 14% (full
story).  IBM shares add 4.2% in early trading.


Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Earnings Fall Yet Top Estimates; Guides Q2
EPS Above Consensus (full
story).  TXN shares soar 8%.

Amgen
(
AMGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Up 11%, Adj. EPS Matches
Consensus, Revenue Grew 15%; Now Sees FY07 EPS At Low End Of Prior Range (full
story).  AMGN shares fall by 1.5%.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange
(
CME |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Earnings Top
Estimates On Volume Strength (full
story).  CME shares drop 2.2%.

Whirlpool
(
WHR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Drops 1%; EPS Falls 14%
On Higher Shares; Top Line Rises 24%; Backs FY07 EPS Forecast (full
story).  WHR shares jump over 15%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +19.99 12,939.39

NASDAQ

 -4.34 2,519.33

S&P 500

 -2.40 1,478.53

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 1,290,600,000 941,851,000

Advances

 1083 1104

Declines

 1983 1732

Up Volume

 491 358

Down Volume

 648 499

New Highs

 158 100

New Lows

 21 57



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
CBOE Technology Index (TXX) S&P Retail Index (RLX)
Amex Disk Drive Index (DDX) Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI)
Morgan Stanley High-Technology 35 Index (MSH) Nasdaq Transportation Index (OFINX)


Economic
News

Exisiting Home
Sales 6.12 mln vs 6.45 mln consensus, -8.4% m/m


Consumer Confidence 104.0 vs 105.0 consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com