White House Scare Is Over — Stocks Higher
Stocks
started off weak after car bombings in
Turkey and a brief White House evacuation, but the market has been in rally mode
since 9:45 AM. A small plane was thought to have violated restricted airspace
near the White House, but later it was determined to be radar error. The
dollar is lower after violence in the Middle East and protectionist trade
policies forced traders to push it higher against the euro. Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a 10% increase in revenue from higher printer and ink sales. HP earned
$862 million compared with $390 million a year ago. Weekly jobless claims fell
to 367,000, the fewest since February of 2001. A University of Michigan study
predicts the economy will add over 5 million jobs over the next 2 years.
| Dow | +29 | 9719 |
| S&P 500 | +3 | 1045 |
| Nasdaq | +13 | 1391 |
Advancers 1661
Decliners 1465
Ratio 1.13
The day’s leading sectors are
Biotech Index
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +4.21%, GSTI Hardware Index
(
$GHA.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.04%, Computer Tech
(
$XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.99%, Semiconductor Sector
Index
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.65%.
Weak today are Morgan
Stanley Healthcare Index [HMO.X|HMO.X]
-3.71%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.20% and S&P Healthcare
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.8%.
Economic news releases for
today included Unemployment Initial Claims, down 355K. Leading indicator numbers
are up 0.4%.
10-year Notes are +55 at
113 130.
The dollar
is -0.26 at 90.74.
Gold is -0.12 at 393.70
Crude Oil is -0.12 at
32.80.
Volume is 556,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 831,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Top Dow stocks are:
Altria Group [MO|MO],
+1.22% at 50.61, Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
0.59% at 25.49, Disney [DIS|DIS],
+0.52% at 22.91, and International Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.51% at 83.31
Stocks in the news:
OmniVision Technologies
(
OVTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported net income of $11.6 million on sales of $68.5 million. Net
income almost quadrupled. Shares are trading 10% higher on the news.
Petsmart
(
PETM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a $29.6
million profit on net sales of $733.7 million. Same-store sales rose 7.5%, 1%
lower than analysts’ consensus. Traders pushed the stock down 5% on the
disappointing news.
Clothing retailer Limited Brands
(
LTD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported higher third-quarter profit on sales of 1.85 billion. Net income rose
to $44.3 million from $10.4 million a year ago. The retailer stood by its
previous fourth-quarter forecast of 74 cents a share.
Electronic retailer Sharper Image
(
SHRP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted a profit of $985,000 compared with a loss of $504,000 a year ago for the
third quarter. Revenue grew 24% to $131.1 million. SHRP confirmed that it plans
to open 25 new stores by the end of January.
If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com