Tuesday Close

S&P 500 1,136.23 +.25%
NASDAQ 2,034.93 +.75%

Leading Sectors
Broadband +2.76%
Disk Drives +2.56%
Iron/Steel +2.31%

Lagging Sectors
Utilities -.92%
Homebuilders -.98%
Retail -2.09%

Other
Crude Oil 35.60 -.17%
Natural Gas 6.11 -.05%
Gold 392.80 unch.
Base Metals 107.87 -1.41%
U.S. Dollar 89.42 +.79%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.68% -1.14%
VIX 15.48 -3.67%
Put/Call .92 +53.33%
NYSE Arms .84 -23.64%

After-hours Movers
ESIO +22.04% after beating 4Q estimates substantially and raising 1Q guidance significantly.
QTWW +10.78% after beating 4Q estimates.
RIMM +6.85% after beating 1Q estimates and raising 2Q/3Q guidance.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on CTSH and Underperform on ATI.

After-hours News
U.S. stocks finished higher today on falling oil prices, declining interest rates and a strong consumer confidence report. After the close, Bank of America said it bought about 160,000 DaimlerChrysler AG credit-card accounts for an undisclosed price, Bloomberg reported. Former President Clinton's memoir has sold almost 1 million copies, CNN reported. Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners will each buy a 27% stake in PanAmSat for about $953 million, or a total of $1.9 billion, Bloomberg said. The U.S. will begin talks tomorrow at the UN on a resolution to disarm the Arab Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities against black Africans in Sudan's Darfur region, Bloomberg reported. Crude oil in New York fell to the lowest price in almost three months on optimism over Iraq and increasing production for OPEC, Bloomberg reported. Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry e-mail pagers, reported sales more than doubled to $269 million form $104.5 million, topping estimates, Bloomberg said. The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board may consider delaying for as much as a year a rule requiring stock options to be expensed, Bloomberg reported.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today and I added a few new technology longs in the afternoon, leaving the Portfolio with 150% net long market exposure. One of my new longs is MOT and I am using a stop-loss of $17.75 on this position. The fact that interest rates fell on a much better-than-expected consumer confidence reading is very positive. Moreover, crude oil has fallen 14% from its recent highs in a very short period of time. Finally, stocks are responding very well to good news as evidenced by the after-hours action in ESIO and RIMM. I continue to expect a move higher in the major U.S. indices by week's end on an increase in volume.