Monday, January 03, 2005

Monday Close

S&P 500 1,202.08 -.81%
NASDAQ 2,152.15 -1.07%


Leading Sectors
Airlines +.27%
Insurance -.27%
Telecom -.38%

Lagging Sectors
Iron/Steel -3.04%
Energy -3.48%
Oil Service -3.68%

Other
Crude Oil 42.26 +.33%
Natural Gas 5.79 unch.
Gold 430.60 +.21%
Base Metals 125.66 +.55%
U.S. Dollar 81.30 +.56%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.21% -.19%.
VIX 14.08 +5.94%
Put/Call .76 +22.58%
NYSE Arms 1.33 +10.83%

After-hours Movers
VLCCF -4.2% on continuing pessimism for oil-tanker stocks.
PRFT +4.95% on continuing optimism over 4Q raised guidance.
ADLR +4.6% after the drugmaker said it agreed to promote GlaxoSmithKiline's Arixtra medication to treat vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in the US.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on WAG. Goldman thinks defense spending cuts are not being factored into stocks, negative for LMT, NOC and BA.

After-hours News
U.S. stocks finished lower today on profit-taking in small-caps and commodity-related stocks. After the close, Iraqi Defense Minister al-Shaalan told Agence France-Presse the Jan. 30 elections could be moved to another date if Sunni Muslims agreed to vote. Rayovac Corp., the No. 3 US battery maker, is near a $1.5 billion agreement to buy closely held United Industries, which makes lawn and garden products, Reuters said. The average US retail price for regular-grade gasoline fell 1.3 cents the past week to $1.778 a gallon, the lowest in 9 months, the Energy Department said. Delta Air may expand to its entire network some of the lower fares and fees adopted four months ago in Cincinnati, a step an Internet travel analyst said would force rivals to follow suit, Bloomberg said.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished lower today on losses in my small-cap technology longs. I exited a number of positions in the afternoon as they hit stop-losses, thus leaving the Portfolio 75% net long. The overall market weakened throughout the day as volume swelled and decliners swamped advancers. While today’s action was disheartening for the bulls, I am not reading too much into it at this point. Significant declines were mainly confined to stocks that have risen substantially over the last year. I will become more concerned if losses continue throughout the week, which I do not expect. On the positive side, energy prices fell, interest rates declined and measures of investor anxiety rose.

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