Why Oil Service Stocks Rallied Today
Stocks
rose slightly on light volume. Earnings season is
for the almost over and investors are waiting to hear what Greenspan has to say
when he testifies before Congress tomorrow beginning at 11:00 AM ET.
In a surprise move, OPEC
said effective April 1 it would cut oil output by 1 million barrels a day to a
target of 24.5 million barrels, with warm
weather expected to erode demand. Oil-consuming nations see the move as a
threat to world economic recovery. “It is our hope that producers do not take
actions that undermine the American economy … and American consumers,” said a
White House spokesman.
Some oil executives and analysts think today’s
action mean crude prices will stay above $30 a barrel for most of 2004.
UBS AG posted a $1.5 billion
fourth-quarter profit on spectacular strength in its Investment Banking and
Securities, with dividends rising by 30%. UBS authorized a buyback of up to $5
billion in shares. Viacom
(
VIA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported fourth-quarter adjusted
earnings that rose to $1.25 billion on revenue of $7.5 billion. It also
announced plans to spin off 81% of Blockbuster
(
BBI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which reported
weak same-store sales, a net loss of $1.19 billion and a less optimistic outlook
with growth rate in the single digits.
Despite efforts over the
weekend to stop the slide, the dollar slid against both the yen and the euro.
The Group of Seven were hoping to curtail the upward momentum of these
currencies, saying Saturday “excess volatility and disorderly movements in
exchange rates are undesirable.”
After the close, La-Z-Boy
(
LAZB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a stock repurchase of up to 6 million additional shares;
Leapfrog
(
LF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed by a penny and guided in-line for ’04.
Micromuse
(
MUSE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03 and guided Q1 ahead of consensus.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
(
DKS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a 4.6% Q4 comp sales gain, boosted
guidance and annoucned a 2:1 stock split. Orbitz
(
ORBZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.19
and affirmed Q1; revenues were up 35% year/year. Priceline.com
(
PCLN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.02 and guided in-line and Sycamore
(
SCMR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in-line but
missed on revenues. Monster.com
(
MNST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny and said Q1
would be “modestly” higher than Q1 2003.
| Dow | +34.82 |
10613.85 |
| S&P 500 |
+5.73 | 1145.54 |
| Nasdaq | +14.76 |
2075.33 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.18%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.33%,
Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.49%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.05%,
and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.29%.
Weak today were Gold
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.97%
and Brokers
(
XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.31%.
10-year Notes were -95
at 113 300
The dollar
was -0.14 at 85.86
Gold was +1.67 at 406.20
Crude Oil was +1.07 at
33.87
Volume was
1,393,606,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,651,175,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2164 | Up Vol 855 |
| Declining | 1127 | Down Vol 526 |
| Ratio | 1.92 | 1.62 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2031 | Up Vol 1032 |
| Declining | 1181 | Dow Vol 537 |
| Ratio | 1.71 | 1.92 |
Stocks in the news:
Human Genome Sciences
(
HGSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a lower-than-expected loss of $48.9 million on revenue of $4.6 million,
with shares up 6%.
TradeStation
(
TRAD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings of $3 million in line with estimates. Revenue rose 18% to $15.8
million. The company expects 2004 revenue to reach $76 million with earnings of
35 cents a share.
Nintendo said its next video gaming
console would hit the stores in 2005 or 2006. The price of the new Nintendo DS
is expected to be under $200.
FindWhat.com
(
FWHT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
fourth-quarter earnings of $3.5 million on a 57% jump in revenue of $21
million. FWHT announced an amended merger agreement to acquire Espotting for
about $170 million in a stock and cash deal. The company dropped 14% on the
news.
Regal Entertainment
(
RGC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a rosy quarter of earnings with net income of $58.8 million on revenue
of 683.3 million, well ahead of analyst consensus. Regal also upped its
dividends by 3 cents to 18 cents a share.