Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Mid-day Report

S&P 500 1,180.12 +.27%
NASDAQ 2,097.52 +.64%


Leading Sectors
Airlines +2.66%
Papers +1.18%
Internet +1.0%

Lagging Sectors
Defense unch.
Retail -.04%
Telecom -.63%

Other
Crude Oil 48.60 -.69%
Natural Gas 7.16 +5.4%
Gold 449.00 +.25%
Base Metals 120.24 +1.22%
U.S. Dollar 82.43 -.61%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.19% +.23%
VIX 12.82 +1.26%
Put/Call .61 -22.78%
NYSE Arms 1.08 -11.48%

Market Movers

Economic Data
Durable Goods Orders for October fell .4% versus estimates of a .5% increase and an upwardly revised .9% gain in September.
Durable Goods Orders Less Transportation for October fell .7% versus estimates of a .2% fall and an upwardly revised 2.8% gain in September.
Initial Jobless Claims for last week were 323K versus estimates of 335K and 335K the prior week.
Continuing Claims were 2755K versus estimates of 2795K and 2784K prior.
Final Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for November was 92.8 versus estimates of 96.0 and a reading of 95.5 in October.
New Home Sales for October were 1226K versus estimates of 1200K and 1224K in September.
Help Wanted Index for October was 37 versus estimates of 37 and a reading of 36 in September.

Recommendations

Mid-day News

Bottom Line: The Portfolio is higher mid-day on strength in my medical instrument, gaming and internet longs. I took profits in an internet long this morning and added BWLD long, thus leaving the Portfolio 125% net long. I am using a stop-loss of $32.50 on this position. Overall, today's economic data was mildly positive. While durable goods orders unexpectedly fell, the upward revisions for last month were significant. I would have liked to see Consumer Confidence at higher levels, however this reading should continue higher through at least year-end. Considering the small gains by the major indices, today's breadth is very healthy. I expect U.S. stocks to trade modestly higher into the close as higher energy prices are more than offset by short-covering.

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