Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Wednesday Close

S&P 500 1,184.63 -.95%
NASDAQ 2,073.59 -1.54%


Leading Sectors
Hospitals +.29%
Oil Service +.23%
Homebuilders +.05%

Lagging Sectors
Wireless -2.55%
Airlines -3.24%
Networking -3.64%

Other
Crude Oil 46.86 -1.49%
Natural Gas 6.20 -1.40%
Gold 423.20 -.02%
Base Metals 120.36 +1.31%
U.S. Dollar 83.57 -.04%
10-Yr. T-note Yield 4.17% +.09%.
VIX 13.18 +5.69%
Put/Call .83 -1.19%
NYSE Arms 1.98 +200.00%
ISE Sentiment 163.00 +12.41%

After-hours Movers
MACR +5.23% after meeting 3Q estimates and raising 4Q outlook.
FFIV +4.74% after substantially beating 1Q estimates and raising 2Q guidance.
RDN +4.72% after beating 4Q estimates.
EBAY -11.68% after slightly missing 4Q estimates, lowering 05 guidance and announcing 2-for-1 split.
SHOP -7.29% on EBAY news.
NVEC -7.11% on profit-taking after beating 3Q estimates.
OSTK -7.05% on EBAY news.
QCOM -6.50% after beating 1Q estimates and lowering 2Q outlook.
AMZN -4.23% on EBAY news.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on CAT and IR. Goldman reiterated Underperform on NAV, ATI and FHN.

After-hours News
U.S. stocks finished lower today on substantial weakness in the technology sector. After the close, Bank of America may try to form an alliance of Parmalat Finanziaria SpA investors to push for changed in litigation against their role in the company’s collapse and press for a broad settlement rather than individual lawsuits, the Financial Times reported. GE’s finance unit may buy as much as 40% of Hyundai Card to become the second-biggest shareholder in the South Korea credit card company, Yonhap News said. European Union failure to understand the scale of US opposition to the lifting of the EU arms embargo on China will result in “major problems,” the Financial Times reported, citing an unidentified US official. Liberty Media may be divided into two as part of a “simplification” plan, the Financial Times said. Qualcomm said first-quarter profit rose 46% as sales climbed on rising demand for handsets that play games and take photos, Bloomberg said. EBay said fourth-quarter profit rose 44%, helped by more holiday shoppers using its US site and increased international listings, Bloomberg reported. EBay shares fell as much as 12% after the company said profit next year may be less than analysts expected, Bloomberg said. Johnson & Johnson said it will return about $11 billion in foreign profit to the US and record tax costs of about $800 million in the fourth quarter, Bloomberg said. The FBI said it’s looking into reports that terrorists may be in Boston, or traveling to the city, with nuclear materials, Bloomberg reported. Crude oil in NY is declining after a government report showed US inventories rose more than expected last week, Bloomberg said.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished lower today on declines in my semiconductor and internet longs. I added a few new technology and commodity-related shorts in the afternoon, thus bringing the Portfolio to 25% net long. One of my new shorts is NE and I am using a $54 stop-loss on this position. The tone of the market worsened markedly into the afternoon as volume accelerated, tech underperformed, almost all sectors declined and the advance/decline line finished at its daily lows. Measures of investor anxiety remained mixed throughout the day. Declines in the Internet sector and worries over terrorism will likely push the major indices lower again tomorrow morning.

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