Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Stocks Finish Modestly Lower after Fed Rate Hike

Indices
S&P 500 1,280.08 -.40%
DJIA 10,864.86 -.32%
NASDAQ 2,305.82 -.04%
Russell 2000 733.20 +.32%
S&P Barra Growth 610.08 -.44%
S&P Barra Value 665.89 -.35%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 592.50 -.79%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 793.05 -.73%
Morgan Stanley Technology 541.11 -.60%
Transports 4,367.54 +.30%
Utilities 413.84 +.03%
Put/Call .77 +18.46%
NYSE Arms 1.51 +79.77%
Volatility(VIX) 12.95 +4.52%
ISE Sentiment 148.00 -36.21%
US Dollar 88.92 -.56%
CRB 348.66 -.40%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 67.68 -.35%
Unleaded Gasoline 179.50 -.56%
Natural Gas 9.34 +.27%
Heating Oil 183.90 -.48%
Gold 573.10 -.42%
Base Metals 169.87 +.15%
Copper 222.20 -.29%
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.51% -.22%

Leading Sectors
Gold & Silver +3.01%
Airlines +1.95%
HMOs +1.92%

Lagging Sectors
Homebuilders -.94%
Insurance -1.0%
Semis -1.44%

Evening Review
Detailed Market Summary
Market Gauges
Daily ETF Performance
Style Performance
Market Wrap CNBC Video(bottom right)
S&P 500 Gallery View
Economic Calendar
Timely Economic Charts
GuruFocus.com
PM Market Call
After-hours Movers
Real-time/After-hours Stock Quote
In Play

Afternoon Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on (GOOG), expects tax rate that caused shortfall to go back to 30% for 06, 06/07 EPS estimates and $500 implied value in tact.
- Reiterated Outperform on (STN), (SEPR), (SYMC) and (BXP).
- Reiterated Underperform on (KFT), (MRK) and (PFGC).

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Federal Reserve policy makers, meeting for the final time under Chairman Alan Greenspan, raised the main US interest rate to 4.5% and suggested the run of increases is still not finished.
- Robert McTeer, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told CNBC that Federal Reserve policy makers should “stop right now and hold” to give the economy a chance to catch up with recent rate increases.
- Google(GOOG) posted fourth-quarter net income growth of 82% and revenue growth of 86%, but missed profit estimates due to a higher-than-expected tax rate.
BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Medical Information Systems longs, Retail longs, Internet longs, Biotech longs and Computer longs. I added to my Google(GOOG) long down 70 after-hours and took profits in an existing long, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was mixed today as the advance/decline line finished neutral, sector performance was mixed and volume was above average. Measures of investor anxiety were higher into the close. Overall, today’s performance was mixed. After recouping all its earlier morning losses, Gilead Sciences (GILD), one of my biotech longs, traded 5.1% higher to an all-time high. Gilead remains my favorite biotech stock.

No comments: