Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Stocks Finish Slightly Higher on Positive Economic Data

Indices
S&P 500 1,414.76 +.40%
DJIA 12,331.60 +.39%
NASDAQ 2,452.38 +.16%
Russell 2000 797.42 +.20%
Wilshire 5000 14,223.79 +.37%
S&P Barra Growth 655.80 +.33%
S&P Barra Value 756.87 +.47%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 686.67 +.77%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 892.51 +.51%
Morgan Stanley Technology 577.48 +.25%
Transports 4,791.93 +.97%
Utilities 462.19 +.31%
Put/Call .75 -12.79%
NYSE Arms .90 -15.67%
Volatility(VIX) 11.27 +.36%
ISE Sentiment 154.0 +12.41%
US Dollar 82.51 +.10%
CRB 316.43 +.33%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 62.54 +.16%
Reformulated Gasoline 164.55 -1.06%
Natural Gas 7.70 -1.33%
Heating Oil 180.03 -.48%
Gold 648.90 -.31%
Base Metals 249.38 +1.42%
Copper 324.60 +2.20%
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.44% +.39%

Leading Sectors
Homebuilders +2.0%
Papers +1.61%
Restaurants +.98%

Lagging Sectors
Oil Tankers -.72%
HMOs -.94%
Gold & Silver -1.25%

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
Oppenheimer:
- Rated (LQDT) Buy, target $21.
- Rated (SPPI) Buy, target $10.
- Rated (GSIC) Buy, target $21.

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- William Polk Carey, chairman of the WP Carey real estate investment banking firm, donated $50 million to Johns Hopkins University to establish a separate business school at the university founded by on of his distant ancestors.
- House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi rejected a call by some lawmakers in her party to withhold funds for military operations in Iraq in order to end the war.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he will push for a constitutional amendment next year that would allow him to hold office indefinitely as a first step toward making Venezuela a socialist nation.
- OPEC oil output fell 1.9% in November or half of the cartel’s pledged cuts at an October meeting.

Australian Financial Review:
- BHP Billiton(BHP) is close to agreeing on a 10.5% cut in annual contract prices for hard coking coal used in steelmaking, citing McCloskey’s Coal Report.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Internet longs, Semi longs and Retail longs. I did not trade in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was slightly positive today as the advance/decline line finished slightly higher, sector performance was mostly positive and volume was above average. Measures of investor anxiety were mostly lower into the close. Today's overall market action was mildly bullish. Homebuilders were standout performers today, rising another 2%. The Housing Index (HGX) is now 25% above July lows. With the many US stock market bears expecting a major decline and even the bulls anticipating a January pullback, large funds are likely paring long exposure further right now.
I suspect more healthy upwardly biased consolidating action like today is likely in the near term before another push higher into year-end.

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