Will We See $10 Oil Soon?
Lower crude oil sent the blue chips up today,
while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 slipped slightly.
The Dow closed at 9874.19, up 50.58, the third
gain this week.
The Nasdaq closed at 1900.72, down 2.47.
The S&P closed at 1141.88, up .67.
Strong sectors were airlines
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5.54%, and transportation
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service
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Oil was the big news today, trading at a
two-and-a-half-year low. In the OPEC meeting in Vienna yesterday, Saudi Oil
Minister Ali al-Naimi said the oil market has entered a “crisis mode”
due to slowing demand. December crude
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17 high. A potential oil price war is shaping up, with non-OPEC producers Russia
and Norway not agreeing to lower production levels. In London, oil prices fell
to $16.80, half their level of a year ago. Merrill Lynch downgraded many oil
service stocks. Weatherford
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lost .44 to 49.92, and Nabors
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Major oil producers were also down. Exxon Mobil
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fell 1.51 to 37.19, ChevronTexaco
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Airline stocks rose on lower crude prices, with
AMR Corp.
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up 1.44 to 15.24. In other airline news, UAL said it would put Taser
International
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closed up 2.46 to 13.26.
A jump in the 10-yr note sent homebuilders down,
with Lennar
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32.25, and Centex
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Weight Watchers
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$24, and the stock quickly climbed to $30, closing just below that at 29.50, up 5.50.
At midnight last night, Microsoft
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rolled out the Xbox game system. MSFT inched up .17 to 66.12.
In a meeting at its headquarters, Yahoo
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said it plans job cuts and will try to generate at least half its revenues from
non-advertising sources by 2004. YHOO lost .38 to close at 14.83.
The hotel industry reported that
revenue-per-room figures for last week were the best since September 11. Hilton
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Marriott
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all made two-month highs.
Internet stock analyst Henry Blodgett is leaving
Merrill Lynch next year and plans to write a book about the Internet craze. The
New York Times estimates his severance package is worth $2 million.
Dell reports earnings tonight, estimates are for .15.