Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Stocks Finish Slightly Higher on Better Consumer Confidence and Rebounding Energy Shares

Indices
S&P 500 1,258.17 +.13%
DJIA 10,796.26 +.17%
NASDAQ 2,228.94 +.09%
Russell 2000 680.08 +.52%
DJ Wilshire 5000 12,591.17 +.20%
S&P Barra Growth 602.07 +.19%
S&P Barra Value 651.75 +.06%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 597.18 +.29%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 790.24 +.43%
Morgan Stanley Technology 529.18 +.14%
Transports 4,223.93 +.18%
Utilities 407.05 -.48%
Put/Call .84 -4.55%
NYSE Arms 1.12 -32.49%
Volatility(VIX) 11.35 -1.90%
ISE Sentiment 198.00 +.51%
US Dollar 91.20 +.01%
CRB 329.32 +1.46%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 60.00 +.30%
Unleaded Gasoline 159.20 +.06%
Natural Gas 11.65 +.11%
Heating Oil 168.96 +.42%
Gold 518.50 +.43%
Base Metals 153.77 +.17%
Copper 206.60 -.14%
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.37% +.76%

Leading Sectors
Gold & Silver +2.47%
Oil Service +1.86%
Steel +1.56%

Lagging Sectors
Utilities -.48%
Disk Drives -.83%
Airlines -2.237%

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 STZ.

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Guidant Corp. recommended that shareholders approve a $21.5 billion takeover offer by Johnson & Johnson and scheduled a Jan. 31 vote while it continues to review a higher offer from Boston Scientific.
- The US Defense Department is contemplating cutting about 24,500 Army and National Guard personnel as part of a plan to save $11.1 billion in Army spending over the next five years, according to Pentagon documents.

Financial Times:
- Hilton Group Plc is near to completing its $6.2 billion sale of its hotels business to US-based Hilton Hotels.
BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished unchanged today as gains in my Retail longs and Internet longs offset losses in my Energy-related shorts. I covered my IWM and QQQQ shorts, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was mildly positive today as the advance/decline line finished modestly higher, sector performance was mixed and volume was very light. Measures of investor anxiety were lower into the close. Overall, today's action was slightly bullish considering the jump in energy prices. However, I expect better action to end the week.

No comments: