Thursday, November 18, 2004

Mid-day Update

S&P 500 1,182.59 +.05%
NASDAQ 2,099.27 -.02%


Leading Sectors
Oil Service +.91%
Airlines +.77%
HMOs +.40%

Lagging Sectors
Retail -.58%
Iron/Steel -1.31%
Broadcasting -1.62%

Other
Crude Oil 45.75 -2.33%
Natural Gas 6.85 -5.95%
Gold 441.10 -.90%
Base Metals 119.70 +.91%
U.S. Dollar 83.89 +.71%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.13% +.09%
VIX 13.06 -1.14%
Put/Call .69 +6.15%
NYSE Arms .86 +14.67%

Market Movers

Economic Data
Initial Jobless Claims for last week were 334K versus estimates of 330K and 337K the prior week.
Continuing Claims were 2792K versus estimates of 2800K and 2808K prior.
Leading Indicators for October fell .3% versus estimates of a .1% fall and a .3% decrease in September.
Philadelphia Fed. for November fell to 20.7 versus estimates of 23.1 and a reading of 28.5 in October.

Recommendations

Mid-day News

Bottom Line: The Portfolio is modestly higher mid-day on gains in my wireless and RFID longs. I have not traded today and the Portfolio remains 100% net long. The tone of the market is mildly negative as most stocks are falling on lighter volume. I am not paying too much attention to most economic numbers at this point due to the fact that most still reflect pre-election worries. I expect data to show U.S. economic acceleration within the next few weeks. Stocks will likely trade mixed into the close as falling energy prices offset economic worries. As well, measures of investor anxiety are still showing too much complacency.

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