Will The Indices Beat The Average Return In April?
After an early rally, stocks were lower on Friday.
A weaker-than-expected jobs report gave traders the green light to
bid up stocks, assuming weaker employment would mean more favorable monetary
policy. The market fell, however, on a higher wholesale prices report. The
question traders are asking is: are we entering a low growth/high inflation
period?
Nonfarm payrolls rose 110K, about half of the expected 225K and the weakest
report since July. The unemployment rate was 5.2%, slightly better than
expected. The February number was revised to 243K from 262K. University of
Michigan consumer sentiment was 92.6 for March vs. 94.1 in February. ISM for
March was 55.2, from 55.3 in February. Construction spending was +0.4% vs the
0.6% consensus.
Best Buy
(
BBY |
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PowerRating) reported Q4 of $1.55, in-line $9.227 billion, also
in line. The report was delayed.
Taser
(
TASR |
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PowerRating) forecast weaker-than-expected sales. The company now
expects sales of $10 million in Q1 vs. $13.6 million previously forecast. The
company blames “significant adverse publicity.”
Biogen
(
BIIB |
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PowerRating) told investors not to rely on recent guidance issue
on February 7, before the company suspended sales of Tysabri.
The average price of an apartment in Manhattan topped $1.21 million–26%
higher than a year ago; this, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman
Manhattan Market Overview.
Ford’s March car sales fell 1.7%, Daimler Chrysler posted an 8% gain.
According to The Stock Trader’s Almanac, the Dow’s average gain in
April since 1950 has been 1.9%.
Strong sectors were: Â Â Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X$ |
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PowerRating)
+2.10% Â Oil
(
$XOI.X |
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PowerRating) +2.07%Â Â Oil
Services
(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating) +2.13%
Weak sectors were:Â Insurance
(
$IUX.X |
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PowerRating) -3.74%Â Â Â
Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
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PowerRating) -2.10%Â Â Semis
(
$SOX.X |
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PowerRating)
-01.40
Dow | -100.20 | 10,403.56 |
Nasdaq | -14.42 | 1984.81 |
S&P 500 | -7.74 | 1172.85 |
The dollar was +0.35 at
84.45
Crude Oil was +1.87 at
57.27
Gold was -1.60 at 425.60
ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 2.1 billion on the NYSE and
1.8 billion on the Nasdaq
Market breadth was negative.
NYSE | Issues | |
Advancing | 1551 | Up Vol 623 |
Declining | 1715 | Down Vol 1300 |
1.17 | 1.21 | |
Nasdaq |
||
Advancing | 1048 | Up Vol 545 |
Declining | 2020 | Down Vol 1140 |
1.93 | 1.29 |
Stocks in the News
Palmsource
(
PRSC |
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PowerRating) reported a loss for Q3 on lighter sales but
forecast a smaller loss than previously expected.
Medicis
(
MRX |
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PowerRating) and Allergan
(
AGN |
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PowerRating) were the subject of a
positive article in Barron’s Online.
Cognos
(
COGN |
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PowerRating) beat estimates but guided lower for Q1.Separately,
the company sign a multi-year agreement with Amazon.com. UBS upgraded the stock
to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral.’
Carl Icahn plans to increase his stake in Hollywood Entertainment
(
HLYW |
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PowerRating) to 10.84%.
Seprecor
(
SEPR |
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PowerRating) expects to begin selling its sleeping pill
Lunesta in a few days.
Red Hat’s
(
RHAT |
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PowerRating) sales more than doubled and increased its stock
buyback program.
Alopharma
(
ALOP |
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PowerRating) missed by 0.04 and guided lower.
Brice Wightman