S&P 500 1,145.81-.55%
NASDAQ 2,053.56-.97%
Leading Sectors
HMO's+1.16%%
Broadcasting+.10%
Banks-.17%
Lagging Sectors
Semis-1.58%
Airlines-2.03%
Disk Drives-3.26%
Other
Crude Oil 34.56+1.71%
Natural Gas 5.54+1.56%
Lumber 376.3-2.18%
After-hours Movers
None of note
After-hours News
U.S. stocks declined after an unexpected drop in the Univ. of Michigan consumer confidence index. Moreover, Bank of America reduced Intel's profit and sales forecasts for the 1st Q, leading to across-the-board profit-taking in the technology sector. Finally, terror worries also contributed to the decline. A white suspicious powder was found in a New Jersey post office and a fire alarm caused the evacuation of the U.S Senate building on Capitol Hill. Both scares proved to be false alarms. China has put 7,793 people under medical supervision to ensure they haven't contracted the bird flu virus. GE, MSFT, PFE, ESRX, INTC, UTX, COH and PEP were recommended on Rukeyser's Wall Street. DELL, MRK and PFE were recommended on Wall Street Week. SBC and Bellsouth are preparing to raise their $30B offer for AT&T Wireless to counter an expected higher bid from Vodafone. Disney will likely reject Comcast's hostile bid because it is too low, according to the Washington Post. Senator Kerry's recent failure to issue a flat-out denial that he had an extramarital affair or relationship "is very Clintonian," a top Democratic aide told Insight Online. "It's very worrying." Separately, President Bush has ordered the release of hundreds of pages of his military records to try and put to rest questions about his National Guard service. The U.S. financial markets will be closed on Monday for President's Day.
BOTTOM LINE: I ended the day with a net long position of 40% in the Portfolio. It wasn't a terrible day, but I don't want to trade against the short-term sell signals generated by the indicators I follow. Most of my long positions did relatively well today and my shorts declined, but not enough to offset my net long exposure. I will look to add some more shorts on any futher weakness Tue. taking the Portfolio to market neutral.
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