What Can We Read Into The Fed’s Actions Today?
Stocks were little changed after the Fed raised
rates by a quarter-point, to 3%. It was the the eighth consecutive
rate increase in almost a year. The phrase traders were looking for– ‘measured
pace’ –remained in the Fed comments. The Fed also said policy remains ‘accomodative.’Â
The Fed inadvertently left out a sentence, which was released after the close:
“Longer term inflation expectations remain well contained.”Â
Factory orders increased 0.1%, more than expected. Chain store sales for the
week of April 30 rose 0.5% vs a 0.3% decline the previous week. The Challenger
job cuts report came in at the lowest level in almost 5 years.
Career Education
(
CECO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny
Electronic Data Systems
(
EDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04.
Tyco
(
TYC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny but warned for 2005.
Las Vegas Sands
(
LVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03; revenues were $404 million,
boosted by the Macao property.
Transocean
(
RIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.07.
Safeway
(
SWY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04.
Strong sectors were: Â Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.32%Â Â
Retail
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.86%Â Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.10%
Weak sectors were: Â Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.63%Â Â
Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.01%Â Â Â Â Oil
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.76%Â Â Â Â Â
| Dow | +5.25 | 10,256.95 |
| Nasdaq | +4.42 | 1933.07 |
| S&P 500 | -0.99 | 1161.17 |
The dollar was -0.07 at
84.42
Crude Oil was -0.52 at
50.40
Gold was -0.60 at
428..10
1.85 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1507 | Up Vol 779 |
| Declining | 1774 | Down Vol 1180 |
| 1.17 | 1.51 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1440 | Up Vol 1080 |
| Declining | 1635 | Down Vol 675 |
| 1.13 | 1.60 |
Stocks in the News
Masco
(
MAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided lower.
Emerson Electric
(
EMR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny and raised its full-year
outlook.
OshKosh Truck
(
OSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) blew away estimates and guided higher, to
$3.85-$4.25 for 2005.Â
Protein Design Labs
(
PDLI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.08.
WebMethods
(
WEBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03.
Brice Wightman