Yesterday: Rate Cuts, Today: Microsoft, Tomorrow…?

Stocks opened up higher Thursday and
never looked back, one day after the Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

The Dow Jones Industrials rose 1.2%
while the Nasdaq Composite gapped higher to close up 2.4%. The overall market
action was constructive as the majority of sectors were in the green today. We should look for follow-through tomorrow, barring any negative news overnight.
In the midst of earnings season? We shall see.

Stocks helping the major indexes
higher in Thursday’s trading included Corning
(
GLW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
which gained 7.0%.

After being halted for most of the
trading session, Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
traded up 2.2%

Surging higher by 8.6% was Cabletron
Systems
(
CS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
after Credit Suisse First Boston initiated coverage on the stock
with a Buy rating.

Vodafone
(
VOD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rallied 8.8% after
the European Union Commission gave antitrust clearance to the company to proceed
with the acquisition of  British Telecom PLC’s stake in Airtel Movil SA.

Borel Bank & Trust Company
(
BLCA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

shot up 31.3% after Boston Private Financial Holdings, Inc
(
BPFH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced
that it was going to acquire the San-Mateo-based private bank.

Leading the sectors higher was the
Semiconductor Index
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
which edged higher by 3.6%.

The Biotechnology Index pushed higher
by 2.7% with the help of Incyte Genomics
(
INCY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and IDEC Pharmaceutical
(
IDPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
.

Also closing higher was the
Transportation Index
(
$TRX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
which moved up 2.7%.

Stocks losing today were Frontier Oil
Corp.
(
FTO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
shedding 11.5% and National Oil Well Inc.
(
NOI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
which lost
8.0%, as the two followed the downward path of the Oil Services Index
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
.
The Oil Services index was the leading sector down sliding 5.3%.

I Many Inc
(
IMNY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lost 18.4%.

Proxicom
(
PROX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
traded lower
10.3% after the company announced they would miss analysts’ estimates for
Q2.  The company said they expect earnings to be between 3 to 7 cents, well
short of the analyst consensus of 16 cents according to Thomson Financial/First
Call.

Redback Inc.
(
RBAK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lost 23.6%
after the company was downgraded by two analysts this morning. Lehman Brothers
and DB Alex Brown both cut the rating on the network equipment provider to
Market Perform from Buy.

As reported above, the Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

led the charge down for the session. Following close behind was the Oil Index
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

which dropped 2.6%

The Gold and Silver Index
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

lost 2.8%

Â