Triple Digit Rally For Blue Chips

Stocks rallied, with the Dow up by triple digits and
closing at the highs for the day. The Dow and Nasdaq closed at 3-week
highs on lower crude prices and news that some Gulf oil rigs are operational.
Crude oil fell 1.1% and closed at a 2-week low.
Economic data also lifted the market. The ISM services Index rose to 65.0% in
August, up from 60.5% in July

Several Dow stocks are in the news: Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was
downgraded to neutral at Merrill Lynch.  Coca Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was
raised to a buy at Bank of America. Deutsche Bank cut GM’s
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) debt
rating to sell from hold.

After the close, Neiman Marcus
(
NMGA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny. 
Shuffle Master
(
SHFL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also beat by a penny, on light revenues. The
company also guided slightly higher.

XM Satellite Radio
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will launch a new channel targeting
women and signed “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” as well as the new “Tyra Banks
Show.”

Carnival Cruise Lines
(
CCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it sees Katrina impacting Q4 by
0.01 – 0.03. Several ships have been chartered to the Military Sealift Command
on the behalf of FEMA.

Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded to overweight at Lehman Bros with a $21
target.

The Wall Street Journal reports that home and car insurance may spike
in the wake of Katrina. In 1992, after hurricane Andrew, policies became
costlier and deductibles in Florida rose.

Strong Sectors were:    Retail 

(
RLX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.47%     Biotech 

(
BTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.26%   
 Disk Drives 
(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.06% 

Weak sectors were:     Gold 
(
XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.51%      

Barrons’ discussed hurricane damage beneficiaries, including Texas
Industries
(
TXI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Nucor
(
NUE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).

True Religion
(
TRLG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was the subject of a positive article in
Barron’s. The company’s jeans are quite popular, worn by Jennifer Lopez and
Justin Timberlake.

GlaxoSmithKline
(
GSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said a study showed Arixtra was as effective
in preventing death, heart attack at nine days as competitor Lovenax/Clexane.

Brice Wightman