What Does The Price Of A NYSE Seat Say About This Market?

Stocks are higher on mixed economic data. 
Personal income for March rose +0.5%, more than expected; personal
spending rose +0.6%. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was
87.7 for April, below estimates. 

For the month, the Dow has fallen 3.5%; the S&P 500 has lost 2.6%. The Nasdaq
has been down for four straight months.

Microsoft
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reported 0.32, in-line. Revenue was $9.6
billion, lower than the expected $9.83 billion estimate.. The company guided
slightly higher. MSFT traded lower after hours.

Gateway
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posted a narrower net loss at 0.01.

KLA-Tencor
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beat by 0.05 as Q3 net income surged 86%, but
the company cut its sales outlook for the current quarter. The stock is trading
lower pre-open.

Chevron Texaco
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missed estimates; revenues rose 22%.

ITT Industries
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ITT |
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beat by 0.21 and raised 2005 guidance.

Sun Microsystems
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may go private, according to The Wall
Street Journal. A hedge fund manager quoted in the article put the LBO price
between $5 – $5.50 per share. Shares of SUNW closed at $3.44 yesterday.

A NYSE seat sold for $2.6 million, up $200,000 from two days ago and just
short of the all-time record high of $2.65 million in August 1999. It was the
third seat sale this week.

Strong sectors are:
Homebuilders

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$HGX.X |
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+2.41%  Gold
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+2.00% 
Chemicals

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+2.14% 

Weak sectors are:   Disk Drives
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-2.45%  
Airlines
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$XAL.X |
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-2.28%  Retail
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-0.87%

Dow +47.36 10,117.73
Nasdaq +1.51 1905.69
S&P 500 +4.71 1147.93

The dollar is -0.12 at
84.23

Crude Oil is -0.52 at
51.25

Gold is -+4.50 at 435.50

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 1.3 billion on the NYSE and
1.2 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is mixed.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1602 Up Vol 608
Declining 1528 Down Vol 595
1.04 1.02
Nasdaq
Advancing 1342 Up Vol 581
Declining 1584 Down Vol 547
1.18 1.06

Stocks in the News

Clear Channel
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CCU |
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will spin off its entertainment unit. The
company also declared a special $3/share dividend and raised its regular
dividend by 50%.

Cardinal Health
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beat by a penny.

The FDA approved Lilly
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LLY |
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and Amylin’s
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diabetes drug to be used in combination with other drugs. 

Archer Daniels Midland
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beat by a penny.

Kellogg
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was upgraded at JP Morgan, from neutral to overweight.

Brice Wightman