Saturday, July 23, 2005

Market Week in Review

S&P 500 1,233.68 +.47%*

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BOTTOM LINE: Overall, last week's market performance was positive as stocks built on recent gains even with more terrorism in London, mildly hawkish commentary from Alan Greenspan and China's yuan revaluation. With 40% of the S&P 500 reporting, 72% of companies have beaten estimates versus a normal average of 59%. The advance/decline line fell slightly, almost every sector gained and volume was slightly above-average on the week. Measures of investor anxiety were mostly higher. The AAII % Bulls fell substantially for the week and is now slightly below average levels. Mortgage rates rose, but are still only 52 basis points away from all-time lows set in June 2003. The benchmark 10-year T-note yield continued to rise on mostly positive economic reports and China's yuan revaluation. As well, small-caps, commodity and cyclical stocks outperformed meaningfully on economic optimism and strong earnings reports. This led to underperformance in defensively-oriented healthcare stocks. Finally, oil declined modestly for the week on more signs that global demand for the commodity is faltering.

*5-day % Change

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