| Index | Last | Chg | % Chg |
| DJ Industrials | 13245.64 | 38.37 | 0.29% |
| Nasdaq Comp | 2640.86 | 39.85 | 1.53% |
| S&P 500 | 1460.12 | 7.12 | 0.49% |
| DJ Wilshire 5K | 14735.57 | 90.93 | 0.62% |
| Russell 2000 | 767.54 | 11.41 | 1.51% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 2069.68 | 38.68 | 1.90% |
| Issues | NYSE | Nasdaq | Amex |
| Advancing | 1,846 | 1,899 | 681 |
| Declining | 1,446 | 1,119 | 544 |
| Unchanged | 86 | 192 | 111 |
| Total | 3,378 | 3,143 | 1,336 |
| Issues at | | | |
| New 52 Wk High | 45 | 42 | 19 |
| New 52 Wk Low | 320 | 238 | 90 |
| Share Volume | | | |
| Total | 1,356,823,280 | 1,969,412,354 | 36,750,038 |
| Advancing | 741,783,900 | 1,452,054,903 | 18,115,100 |
| Declining | 588,871,280 | 465,913,029 | 15,425,338 |
| Unchanged | 26,168,100 | 51,444,422 | 3,209,600 |
| Futures | Last | Chg |
| Crude Oil | 91.4 | 0.34 |
| Natural Gas, Mar | 7.273 | 0 |
| Gold, Feb | 804.6 | 1.4 |
From Briefing.com:
| Moving the Market |  | Sector Watch |
| Oracle, Nike and Accenture top earnings expectations FedEx reports earnings that beat expectations, but issues future Q3 earnings guidance below estimates Bear Stearns significantly misses earnings expectations Bond insurer MBIA says it has $30.6 bln in CDO and Mortgage exposure | Strong: fertilizer & agriculture chemicals; IT consulting services; agriculture products; footwear; semiconductors; systems software; constructions & farm machinery; aluminum; electronic equipment; office electronics Weak: home furnishings; real estate management & development; industrial REITs; consumer finance; general merchandise stores; education services; thrifts & mortgages; property & casualty insurance; residential REITs; dept. stores |
It was another roller coaster day of trading on Thursday. The S&P and Dow closed with modest gains after spending much of the day in the red, while the Nasdaq finished the day significantly higher, buoyed by a strong earnings report from Oracle (ORC 22.10, +1.34). The financial sector prevented the market from making further gains,though, as bond insurers once again came under scrutiny. Shares of bond insurer MBIA (MBI 20.00, -7.02) plummeted 26% after the company said it has $30.6 billion in collateralized debt obligation exposure, much larger than many analysts previously thought. Yesterday, Standard & Poor's affirmed MBIA's AAA credit rating, and today said the company's CDO exposure was factored into that decision. S&P's announcement, though, did little to help the stock, as some investors felt blindsided that the exposure was not previously disclosed. Adding to the company's woes, Fitch Ratings put MBIA on Rating Watch Negative because of the CDO exposure. A number of companies reported earnings on Thursday, most of them better than expected. Oracle played a pivotal role in the Nasdaq's outperformance after reporting stronger than expected earnings. Oracle earnings came in at $0.31 per share, topping estimates by $0.04. Meanwhile, Nike (NKE 66.01, +2.21), Herman Miller (MLHR 32.05, +3.63), and Accenture (ACN 37.24, +2.28) all came in ahead of estimates. It was just about a month ago that FedEx (FDX 93.63, -1.00) warned of an earnings shortfall for its second quarter and fiscal year. So, although FedEx beat the second quarter consensus estimate of $1.50 by four cents, the qualifier should be added that it beat the lowered consensus estimate. Also, the company issued futures earnings guidance below expectations, which helped send its shares lower. Bear Stearns (BSC 91.42, +0.82) reported a huge loss of $6.90 per share due to mortgage-related losses, much higher than the $1.79 per share loss most analysts expected. It was Bear's first quarterly loss ever, according to reports. After some choppy trading, the market shrugged off the negative report, sending shares of the company higher. Of the nine sectors that traded high, tech (+1.6%) provided leadership, thanks to strength in Oracle and Apple (AAPL 187.21, +4.09). Only the financial sector (-0.7%) finished lower. There were several economic reports, although none had much of an impact on the stock market. Third quarter real GDP was unchanged at a 4.9% annual growth rate. Core PCE rose 2.0% (consensus +1.8%) quarter over quarter and the GDP Price Index rose 1.0% (consensus +0.9%). The report was just the final revision, so it did not have much of an impact on the market. The weekly initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 15 rose to 346,000 from 335,000 the week before. The reading is not high enough to signal significant weakness in the labor market, just a modest worsening. Leading Indicators dropped by 0.4%, slightly more than the expectation of a 0.3% drop. This report typically garners little market interest, as many of the indicators that make up the report have been previously released. Lastly, the regional Fed survey for December manufacturing was a very disappointing -5.7. A reading below zero suggests a contraction in manufacturing. The New York survey released earlier this week had a more optimistic reading of 10.3. These are just regional surveys, and not too much emphasis should be placed on them, but a poor reading here raises red flags. |
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