Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Tuesday Close

S&P 500 1,142.18 +.15%
NASDAQ 2,023.53 +.14%


Leading Sectors
Airlines +2.50%
Restaurants +1.08%
Computer Boxmakers +.85%

Lagging Sectors
Gaming -.89%
Biotech -1.03%
Homebuilders -2.44%

Other
Crude Oil 36.95 -.89%
Natural Gas 6.09 -.41%
Gold 392.10 +.08%
Base Metals 107.10 -.94%
U.S. Dollar 88.51 +.29%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.76 +.04%
VIX 15.01 -2.47%
Put/Call .86 +6.17%
NYSE Arms .91 +167.65%

After-hours Movers
DHB +40.0% after saying it was awarded a $239.4 million contract to supply the U.S. Army with the company's new armor that shields arms and shoulders.
REMC +7.87% after beating 1Q estimates.
CACH -8.91% after cutting 2Q and 04 forecasts.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on DTV and Underperform on VRTX. Scott Moritz wrote a positive column on AGR/A for TheStreet.com.

After-hours News
U.S. stocks finished modestly higher today as short covering and investors afraid of missing the recent rally boosted shares in the afternoon. After the close, President Bush said he may ask governments attending the G-8 summit starting tomorrow to help write-off Iraq's debts, the Financial Times reported. Lea Fastow, the wife of former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, has been ordered to report to a prison in downtown Houston rather than the minimum-security facility her lawyers had sought, the Houston Chronicle reported. Crude oil futures fell to a six-week low on expectations of rising U.S. inventories, Bloomberg reported. The dollar had its biggest rise against the euro in three weeks after Greenspan said that interest-rate increases are coming and signaled the central bank is prepared to accelerate the pace of those increases if inflation exceeds forecasts. Almost daily stomach and urinary problems may help doctors diagnose ovarian cancer before it becomes deadly, according to a study in the AMA Journal. Shares of Sears and Kmart rose today on speculation that Sears may purchase some stores from Kmart, Bloomberg said. Mexico's tourism revenue grew 15% in the first four months of the year, double the pace in the same period of 2003, as an improving economy spurred travel and terrorism concerns kept U.S. travelers close to home, Bloomberg reported. The UN Security Council voted 15-0 to restore Iraq's sovereignty on June 30 and mandate U.S.-led forces to maintain security until the end of 2005, Bloomberg reported.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio was unchanged on the day as my rising semiconductor and semi-equipment longs were offset by declines in my internet and industrial longs. I took profits in one of my industrial longs in the afternoon and added TZOO. I am keeping a stop-loss of $19.00 on this new long position. Today's muted action was positive for the Bulls considering the comments Greenspan made with respect to inflation and raising rates. I continue to expect an increase in the Fed Funds' rate of 50 basis points by June 30. With energy prices continuing to fall and interest rates stabilizing, another burst of buying activity in U.S. stocks is possible before a short-term top is formed. This will likely occur at any time. However, I will use any extreme strength to lighten market exposure ahead of several key inflation reports.

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