Monday, January 24, 2005

Monday Close

S&P 500 1,163.75 -.35%
NASDAQ 2,008.70 -1.26%


Leading Sectors
Energy +.82%
Utilities +.80%
Oil Service +.71%

Lagging Sectors
Biotech -2.09%
Internet -2.21%
Airlines -4.49%

Other
Crude Oil 48.88 +.14%
Natural Gas 6.52 +.76%
Gold 427.40 +.07%
Base Metals 120.95 -.08%
U.S. Dollar 83.24 -.02%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.12% -.42%.
VIX 14.65 +2.02%
Put/Call .73 -12.05%
NYSE Arms 1.27 -23.95%
ISE Sentiment 149.00 -4.49%

After-hours Movers
NFLX +15.17% after beating 4Q estimates and raising 1Q outlook.
SLAB +21.01% after beating 4Q estimates and raising 1Q guidance.
PLMO -10.79% after saying CEO Bradley will resign.
JDAS +12.95% after substantially beating 4Q estimates.
CAI -4.98% after meeting 2Q estimates, but lowering 3Q/4Q outlook.
FILE -11.67% after missing 4Q estimates.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on DDR, RE, SBC, BLS, MERQ and STN.

After-hours News
U.S. stocks finished lower today, led by technology and small-cap shares. After the close, as many as half of New York City’s workers in the 1990’s were foreign-born, with Latin America replacing Europe as the dominant source, according to a study issued today. Lehman Brothers Holdings’ talks to buy London-based hedge fund GLG Partners LP have been delayed by tax issues and an investigation into alleged insider trading, the Financial Times reported. The assets of the largest 1,000 US pension funds rose 10.6% in the 12 months ended Sept. 300, the second consecutive year of double-digit gains, as US and foreign stocks bolstered fund performance, Pensions & Investments reported. Delphi Corp. Chairman and CEO Battenberg said high inventories and increasing costs of pensions and health care are weighing on the auto parts industry, CNBC reported. Citigroup traders may face a criminal investigation by German prosecutors that they manipulated the government bond futures market in that country, the Financial Times reported. The production value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is expected to grow 14.8% this year, outpacing the predicted 1.2% global growth, the Commercial Times reported. China’s advertising market grew 32% to $18.9 billion in 2004, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported. US Senate Republican leaders said they’ll debate legislation limiting rewards for class-action lawsuits before acting on the creation of private Social Security accounts, Bloomberg reported. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts will pay new CEO Cooper $760/hour, Bloomberg said. US antitrust enforcers are reviewing plans by Gannett Co., the largest US newspaper publisher, to buy the publisher of weekly newspapers near three cities where Gannett publishes dailies, Bloomberg reported. ATI Technologies will place new order for mobile phone chips with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the Commercial Times reported.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished slightly higher today on gains in my software and auto parts shorts. I took profits in a couple of semiconductor shorts and added OIH short in the afternoon, thus leaving the Portfolio market neutral. I am using a stop-loss of $90.25 on this new position. In what has become a very bad habit, the market finished at its lows for the day, volume increased and market internals were very weak. Measures of investor anxiety were mixed on the day which is also a negative. I continue to expect a tradable bottom in the major indices towards the latter part of the week. I also believe crude oil will top this week and begin heading lower next week after the Iraqi elections on worries over increasing supply, a stabilizing US dollar and slower global demand.

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