Will These Numbers Restore Confidence?
Stocks
opened stronger before pulling back after a positive payroll number.
The judge in the Tyco Trial declared a mistrial, citing outside pressure
on one of the jurors. The euro tumbled more than one penny after strong jobs
data that showed a 308,000 March growth rate; the biggest gain since 2000 and
well above the 103,000 expected by Wall Street. Treasuries fell sharply, lifting
yields to two-month highs with the dollar notching gains too. Homebuilders and
Mortgage Lenders fell sharply as interest rates surged. January payroll numbers
grew by 159,000 for February, revised from 21,000 to show a gain of 46,000.
Global chip sales rose 31% to
$15.58 billion in February. Companies that benefited from surging demand include
Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Novellus
(
NOVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), KLA
Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Transmeta
(
TMTA |
Quote |
Chart |
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PowerRating). The European
Semiconductor Industry Association expects chip sales to grow at least 20% this
year with tighter capacity resulting in higher prices.
Dow | +86.45 |
10460.52 |
S&P 500 |
+8.26 | 1140.60 |
Nasdaq | +32.41 |
2047.86 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 4.83%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.16%,
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.80%, and Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +
2.14%,
Weak today are Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.78% and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.63%.
Economic news releases today
included strong nonfarm payrolls that blew past estimates at 308,000. The
unemployment rate rose by 0.1% to 5.7% while the average workweek fell by 0.1 to
33.7 and hourly edged up 0.1%%.
10-year Notes are -1315
at 112 285
The dollar
is +1.37 at 88.90
Gold is -8.10 at 420.70
Crude oil is -0.20 at
33.55
Volume is 1,046,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,490,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
NYSE | Issues | |
Advancing |
1711 | Up Vol 679 |
Declining | 1550 | Down Vol 352 |
Ratio | 1.13 | 1.91 |
Nasdaq |
||
Advancing |
2098 | Up Vol 1256 |
Declining |
1053 | Down Vol 195 |
Ratio | 2.10 | 6.57 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.49% at
35.33, Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.63% at 39.70, Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.79 at 25.78, and Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.38% at 79.31
Stocks in the news:
Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it would
cut 3,300 jobs, and its earnings for the third-quarter will be
lower-than-expected.
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has agreed to pay
$1.6 billion to settle litigation and antitrust issues.
Merrill Lynch raised Qualcomm’s
(
QCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
2004-2005 earnings estimates to $1.90 EPS and its price target of $65 to $75.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com