Wednesday, January 24, 2007

S&P 500 Hits 6-Year High, Led by Tech Stocks

Indices
S&P 500 1,440.13 +.85%
DJIA 12,621.77 +.70%
NASDAQ 2,466.28 +1.43%
Russell 2000 794.03 +1.10%
Wilshire 5000 14,458.12 +.87%
Russell 1000 Growth 568.0 +.96%
Russell 1000 Value 826.79 +.79%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 711.54 +.26%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 923.79 +.79%
Morgan Stanley Technology 564.02 +1.29%
Transports 4,821.90 -.11%
Utilities 453.28 +.84%
Put/Call .83 -6.74%
NYSE Arms .75 -19.94%
Volatility(VIX) 9.89 -4.35%
ISE Sentiment 114.0 -16.79%
US Dollar 84.96 +.34%
CRB 296.09 -.19%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 55.31 +.49%
Reformulated Gasoline 146.09 +.94%
Natural Gas 7.32 -3.59%
Heating Oil 158.05 +.27%
Gold 654.90 +.35%
Base Metals 234.45 +1.71%
Copper 261.0 +.93%
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.81% -.04%

Leading Sectors
Telecom +2.91%
Internet +2.76%
Computer Hardware +2.33%

Lagging Sectors
Defense -.25%
Restaurants -.39%
Airlines -.51%

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
Merrill Lynch:
- Rated (AIMC) Buy.

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- US stocks rose, driving the S&P 500 to a six-year high, after better-than-expected tech sector earnings.
- EBay Inc.(EBAY) said fourth-quarter profit rose 24%, beating analysts’ estimates as holiday shoppers bought more goods using the company’s PayPal online-payment service. EBAY surged 12% after-hours.
- Netflix(NFLX) said fourth-quarter profit fell less than analysts anticipated as the company added subscribers. The company forecast an increase in first-quarter profit. NFLX rose 8% in after-hours.
- Wall Street firms are trying to figure out how to finance leveraged buyouts of $75 billion or more, twice the size of the largest deal on record, a Citigroup executive said.
- Steelmakers' earnings may decline this year on weaker demand, S&P said.
- Petroleum reserves in Colombia, Latin America's fifth-largest oil exporter, rose as better security made exploration safer, the president of the National Hydrocarbon Agency said.

Wall Street Journal:
- Siemens AG, Europe’s biggest engineering company, is close to purchasing software marker UGS Corp., based in Plano, Texas, for $3.5 billion, including assumed debt.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Retail longs, Telecom Longs, Semi longs and Internet longs. I did not trade in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was very positive today as the advance/decline line finished substantially higher, almost every sector rose and volume was heavy. Measures of investor anxiety were mostly lower into the close. Today's overall market action was very bullish. I suspect many of the near-record shorts and underinvested bulls will add fuel to today's rally over the coming days. I continue to believe performance anxiety will come to the fore much sooner than normal, due to the S&P 500's 16.0% gain last year. The ISE Sentiment Index traded at depressed levels throughout the day and is finishing at 114.0. Hitwise.com is reporting that for the week ending 1/13/07, the share of searches for "iPhone" was greater than the weekly share of searches for "iPod" at any time during 2006. While most critical analysis of the iPhone focuses on its few drawbacks, little attention has been paid to the many negatives of the phones it will be competing with. I am very familiar with these products and continue to believe the iPhone will crush the competition and that Apple's (AAPL) future has never been brighter.

No comments: