Year-End Up Bias? Here Are The Facts
Stocks
climbed higher today with the Dow hitting a 19-month high. McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded higher on a JP Morgan upgrade. The analyst said the recent drop
due to the mad-cow scare presents a good buying opportunity. Lehman Brothers
believes the Fed will hold interest rates steady throughout 2004. ComScore, a
market research firm, released data that showed online sales for the week of
Dec. 26 surging 43% over the year-ago period. The dollar continued its descent,
trading at $1.25 per euro.
According to the Stock
Trader’s Almanac, the market has an up bias in the last five trading days of
the year and the first two in days in January. Nicknamed the “Santa Claus rally,”
it has been good for an average 1.5% gain since 1950.
| Dow | +55.36 |
10380.30 |
| S&P 500 | +6.33 | 1102.23 |
| Nasdaq | +18.51 |
1991.81 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.99%, Gold and Silver [XAU.X|XAU.X]
+2.50%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.29%, and Telecoms
(
IXTCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.25%,
Weak today is Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.18%.
No Economic news
releases today.
10-year Notes are -180
at 112 135
The dollar
is -0.24 at 87.69
Gold is +0.15 at 414.30
Crude Oil is -0.48 at
32.40
Volume is 467,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 718,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2251 | Up Vol 373 |
| Declining | 894 | Down Vol 84 |
| Ratio | 2.52 | 4.44 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 2059 | Up Vol 565 |
| Declining | 1031 | Down Vol 130 |
| Ratio | 1.98 | 4.34 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.72% at 31.89,
Eastman Kodak [EK|EK],
+1.43% at 25.20, AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+1.41% at 19.81, and SBC Comm [SBC|SBC],
+1.41% at 25.54.
Stocks in the news:
The Alabama Supreme court has reversed a $3.5
billion jury ruling against ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) involving natural gas
well royalties. The judge sent the case back to a lower court.
Ameriana Bancorp
(
ASBI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will take a
$5.6 million charge to ante up its reserves for the fourth quarter. The company
is expected to reduce earnings by $1.08 a share,due to a failed investment in a
leasing company.
Banc of America upgraded shares of Red Hat
(
RHAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to “Buy.” RHAT is trading 2% higher.
Eli Lilly
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received FDA approval
to sell its bipolar disorder drug, Symbyax, said to treat the depression stages
of the illness without triggering mania.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com