Monday, February 09, 2004

Mid-day Update

S&P 500 1,143.92 +.1%
NASDAQ 2072.71 +.42%

Leading/Lagging Sectors
Oil Service+2.72%
Fashion+1.98%
Iron/Steel+1.59%
Drugs-.43%
Telecom-.49%
Networking-.71%

Market Movers
JNPR down on NSCN acquisition....$3.3B price tag, 58% premium seen as steep.
TSN,PPC,SAFM down on Japanese import ban due to bird flu outbreak in Delaware.
SLAB up on new semi for mobile phones...seen adding $100M in revenue/.20 eps in 05....Wachovia upgrades to Outperform.
SHI,ACH,YZC,HNP,BYH up as Chinese cyclicals continue to outperform on strengthening fundamentals/technicals...relatively low valuations.
NTE up on strong earnings report.
AAII down on unexpectedly early generic competition.
IACI up on strong earnings as Expedia travel division reported a 41% increase in sales.

Mid-day News
Bush administration is now projecting 2.6M new jobs created in 04. Visa CEO said they saw 16% growth in Jan. and bankruptcies down 5%. SAP may lower prices to compete as MSFT takes share. PIMCO's McCulley told CNBC bond prices will fall soon as Fed raises rates. He is especially negative on long-dated and low-rated corporate paper. Nintendo will exit video game console market to focus on software.

BOTTOM LINE: Quiet day for the most part. JNPR acquisition and continued rotation into cyclicals and out of healthcare are 2 main areas of focus. I would like to see more follow-through from Fri. Small-cap growth is outperforming market. I haven't made any trades today. Very good day so far for the Portfolio. I will look to take profits into any unexpected weakness later today, otherwise I will maintain 100% net long stance.

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