Friday, April 16, 2004

Friday Close

S&P 500 1,134.61 +.51%
NASDAQ 1,995.74 -.32%


Leading Sectors
Gaming +2.49%
Papers +1.92%
I-Banks +1.81%

Lagging Sectors
Semis -1.76%
Broadband -2.50%
Disk Drives -2.88%

Other
Crude Oil 37.74 +.45%
Natural Gas 5.61 -2.16%
Gold 401.60 +.83%
Base Metals 112.93 +1.45%
U.S. Dollar 89.94 -.13%
10-Yr. Long-Bond Yield 4.34% -1.27%
VIX 14.94 -5.08%
Put/Call .77 -8.33%
NYSE Arms 1.44 +51.58%

After-hours Movers
DNA +7.31% after announcing an increase in its authorized shares of common stock from 1.2B to 3B shares and declaring a 2-for-1 stock split.

Recommendations
MOLXA raised to Buy at Citi Smith Barney. Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on ROH, DOW, PKG, MCK, CAH and CLS.

After-hours News
U.S. stocks finished mixed as declining rates boosted shares of consumer cyclicals and financials while technology stocks continued their recent underperformance. After the close, Bloomberg reported that Japanese bonds fell for a fifth week, their longest slide in more than two years, on prospects that an export-led economic recovery will be sustained after reports signaled growth will accelerate in the U.S. Ernst & Young will be barred from accepting new public company audit clients for six months because of independence violations, a U.S. SEC judge ruled.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished down on the day. I rotated out of some losing tech positions and into a few consumer cyclical and energy-related stocks, leaving the portfolio with market neutral exposure. The technology sector appears to have further downside in the near-term, while many other sectors seem to be stabilizing.

No comments: