Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Stocks Finish at Session Highs, Led by Strong Gains in the Tech Sector

Indices
S&P 500 1,265.65 +.87%
DJIA 10,858.62 +1.01%
NASDAQ 2,266.98 +.98%
Russell 2000 721.16 +.55%
S&P Barra Growth 606.23 +.98%
S&P Barra Value 659.48 +.75%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 593.00 +.72%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 781.84 +.94%
Morgan Stanley Technology 533.67 +1.48%
Transports 4,278.81 +1.16%
Utilities 403.27 -.30%
Put/Call .78 -17.02%
NYSE Arms .76 -46.17%
Volatility(VIX) 12.83 -5.59%
ISE Sentiment 184.00 +20.26%
US Dollar 90.43 +.21%
CRB 336.07 -.11%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 62.54 -.02%
Unleaded Gasoline 154.75 -.04%
Natural Gas 7.73 unch.
Heating Oil 166.56 unch.
Gold 553.00 -.14%
Base Metals 172.34 -.36%
Copper 227.30 -.07%
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.58% +.44%

Leading Sectors
Networking +3.38%
Wireless +2.23%
Airlines +2.19%

Lagging Sectors
Broadcasting -.46%
Steel -.60%
Coal -1.18%

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 (UVN), (BAC), (ENH), (RNR) and (QSFT).
- Reiterated Underperform on (UNH).

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- General Motors(GM) and Ford Motor(F) will join with energy companies to promote the use of ethanol as an alternate to gasoline in Illinois and Missouri.
- News Corp.(NWS/A), the media company run by Rupert Murdoch, said second-quarter profit almost tripled, buoyed by asset sales and higher sales at its cable television networks.
- President Bush said that making his first-term tax cuts permanent is critical to keeping the US competitive, especially the 15% rate on dividends and capital gains set to expire in 2008.
- Whole Foods Market(WFMI) said first-quarter profit rose on gains from new store openings and sales of prepared foods.
- Google(GOOG) hired Amazon.com’s(AMZN) top Internet search executive to join its engineering team as competition intensifies with Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) and Yahoo!(YHOO).
- Crude oil traded near a five-week low in NY after a US government report showed the nation’s gasoline supplies rose for a sixth straight week to an 11-month high.

AP:
- NY Democratic Attorney General Spitzer has subpoenaed at least eight radio station companies in his investigation of whether recording companies bribed radio stations to play songs.

Boston Globe:
- About a dozen Harvard Univ. professors yesterday confronted school President Lawrence Summers, and some demanded he resing.
BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Networking longs, Computer longs and Semi longs. I exited the remainder of my (IWM)/(QQQQ) shorts and added to my existing longs in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was positive today as the advance/decline line finished higher, most sectors rose and volume was heavy. Measures of investor anxiety were lower into the close. Overall, today’s market performance was positive. I would like to see better breadth on a follow-through move higher tomorrow. Technology shares outperformed substantially today, doubling gains in the broad market. This is a big positive, especially with commodity stock underperformance.

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