Thursday, March 02, 2006

Stocks Finish Only Slightly Lower after Late-day Rally

Indices
S&P 500 1,289.14 -.16%
DJIA 11,025.51 -.25%
NASDAQ 2,311.11 -.15%
Russell 2000 740.16 -.30%
Wilshire 5000 13,002.67 -.13%
S&P Barra Growth 609.34 -.17%
S&P Barra Value 676.32 -.15%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 603.10 -.41%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 792.26 -.72%
Morgan Stanley Technology 542.88 +.30%
Transports 4,482.05 -.71%
Utilities 411.66 -.04%
Put/Call .96 +35.21%
NYSE Arms .95 +31.54%
Volatility(VIX) 11.72 +1.56%
ISE Sentiment 171.00 +12.50%
US Dollar 89.55 -.74%
CRB 329.21 +1.35%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 63.51 +.24%
Unleaded Gasoline 169.90 +.38%
Natural Gas 6.76 +.04%
Heating Oil 181.50 +.56%
Gold 571.60 %
Base Metals 169.09 +2.35%
Copper 226.75 unch.
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.62% +.95%

Leading Sectors
Gold & Silver +2.67%
Oil Service +2.39%
Energy +1.49%

Lagging Sectors
Gaming -1.06%
Retail -1.20%
Airlines -1.33%

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 (WCC).

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Chevron Corp.(CVX) said it acquired five oil sands leases, boosting its holdings in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta.
- Google Inc.(CEO) Schmidt said he sees no limit to the Internet search engine’s ability to increase advertising revenue, a bullish outlook that allayed investor concerns about slowing growth.
- Fidelity Investments, the world’s largest mutual fund company, said earnings rose 20% last year, helped by rising stock prices and its brokerage business.
- The US Senate voted 89-10 to renew the USA Patriot act, ending a 2 1/2 –month stalemate over the law that gave the FBI expanded powers to investigate terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks.
- Crude oil rose as speculation increased that OPEC would cut production after the President of the group warned of a potential “dramatic” price decline in oil.
BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Internet longs, Computer longs and Networking longs. I existed an existing long and added (CIEN) long in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was slightly negative today as the advance/decline line finished modestly lower, sector performance was mixed and volume was above average. Measures of investor anxiety were mostly higher into the close. Overall, today's market performance was just slightly bearish. However, the bears failed to gain traction once again, even as oil and long-term rates rose. I expect stocks to make another push higher soon on another round of short-covering.

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