<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=pageDate>Updated: 29-Aug-05 14:31 ET</TD><TD class=brf-smalltext align=right>
Major Indices | Intraday Charts:
Dow |
Nasdaq |
S&P500</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top><!-- Content Begin--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0 xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" xmlns:user="urn:www.briefing.com"><TBODY><TR class=sectionColor><TD class=rH colSpan=3>The market at 14:30 ET</TD></TR><TR><TD class=rD vAlign=top width="40%" colSpan=2>
Dow: +61...
Nasdaq: +14...
S&P: +6.22... </TD><TD class=rD with="60%">
NYSE Vol: 841 mln..
Adv: 1847..
Dec: 1321
Nasdaq Vol: 876 mln..
Adv: 1554..
Dec: 1399</TD></TR><TR><TD height=3></TD></TR><TR class=sectionColor><TD class=rH>Moving the Market</TD><TD class=rL rowSpan=2>
</TD><TD class=rH>Sector Watch</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD class=rD rowSpan=2>10-yr Note +5/32 at 4.17%
Hurricane Katrina hits Gulf Coast; energy prices spike on concerns about supply disruptions, but then fade noticeably from their highs
Report that oil will be released from Strategic Petroleum Reserve if necessary</TD><TD class=rD>
Strong: steel, insurance brokers, div. metals, leisure products, home improvement retail, biotech, food retail, semi equip.
Weak: home furnishings, photo products, IT consulting, auto parts</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0 xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" xmlns:user="urn:www.briefing.com"><TBODY><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>14:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow +61, Nasdaq +14, S&P +6.22</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Buying efforts have tapered off, but the major indices remain comfortably above the unchanged line with leadership from the technology (+0.69%) and health care (+0.90%) sectors underpinning the blue chip averages... To that end, IBM (IBM 81.54, +1.16) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 62.90, +0.96) are two of the Dow's top three components today - the other is Boeing (BA 67.22, +0.91), which is outperforming despite a Wall Street Journal article today that raises the possibility of a strike ensuing at the aircraft manufacturer if a proposed contract for the 18,300 member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union suggests there will be a paring of the company's defined-benefit pension plan... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1847/1321. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1554/1399. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>14:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow +71, Nasdaq +17, S&P +7.12</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] With energy futures slipping well off their best levels of the day (crude +$0.32 at $66.45/bbl), the market continues to advance in a broad-based campaign... The technology sector (+0.86%) has been the biggest driver of the uptick as leadership from large-cap players like Microsoft (MSFT 27.15, +0.18), Intel (INTC 25.79, +0.38), Cisco (CSCO 17.74, +0.34), Amgen (AMGN 79.84, +1.16) and Sandisk (SNDK 39.44, +2.16) is spilling over to other areas... On a percentage basis, health care (+0.93%) is the biggest mover among the economic sectors and is lending an added source of influential support to the broader market... ..SOX +1.5%. ..Nasdaq 100 +1.0%. ..S&P Midcap 400 +0.5%. ..Russell 2000 +0.8%. ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1767/1402. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1533/1395. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>13:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow +47, Nasdaq +11, S&P +4.65</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] The major indices have moved to their best levels of the day, driven by a further pullback in crude prices... Although crude futures are still up for the session (+$1.17 at $67.30), they are well off the high of $70.80 seen earlier in electronic trading... Other energy futures contracts, like natural gas, unleaded gas, and heating oil, are also well off their highs... The latter has contributed to the uptick in the stock market; all 10 economic sectors are in positive territory now... Moreover, for the first time today we can write that advancers are outpacing decliners at both the NYSE and Nasdaq - albeit by a slim margin... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1677/1465. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1458/1455. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>13:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow +19, Nasdaq +4, S&P +1.11</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Market continues to trudge along as conviction on both the buy-side and sell-side is lacking... Outside of the attention being paid to Hurricane Katrina, the lack of conviction in the equity market can be attributed to the vacation factor as many participants are either out of the office, or are thinking about being out of the office, for the upcoming Labor Day weekend.... Additionally, participants may be sitting on their wallets deliberately knowing that the influential employment report (for August) is due to be released on Friday... Briefing.com expects to hear that 215K positions were added to nonfarm payrolls while the market is expecting an increase of 190K... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1409/1707. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1248/1623. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>12:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow +23, Nasdaq +5, S&P +1.54</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] After some early choppiness the market has settled into a narrow trading range... Although the majority of economic sectors (6 out of 10) are in positive territory, none are flexing their muscle to any convincing degree... Separately, the Treasury market has held a positive bid for most of the session as the spike in oil prices has fed some buying interest predicated on the notion that higher prices could restrain economic growth, and thereby, help curtail the Fed's tightening activities... There's not a lot of conviction behind that trade, though, as volume is quite light in the Treasury market... The 10-yr note is currently +6/32 at 4.16%... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1372/1709. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1245/1614. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>12:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow +18, Nasdaq +3, S&P +1.13</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast near New Orleans as a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale... In its wake Katrina left a torrent of concerns about the production capabilities of offshore oil rigs that drove crude prices to a record high of $70.80/bbl in electronic trading... In turn, price spikes were seen across the energy complex on related fears that the storm would do severe damage to refinining facilities... Not surprisingly, equity futures were bogged down by the spike in energy prices and pointed to a lower open for the cash market, which is exactly what we got... The early losses, however, were modest in scope as a drop in long-term interest rates, gains in the energy stocks, and pockets of strength in the home improvement retail, software, and semiconductor industry groups served as an offsetting influence... Additionally, some of the concerns related to oil supply disruptions were mitigated when it was reported the Dept. of Energy would release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the event it was deemed necessary following damage assessments... That indication took some steam out of crude futures, which are now up just $1.72 at $67.85/bbl... As oil prices moved off their highs, stocks started to rebound and are showing modest gains at mid-day... Energy (+0.51%) continues to be the best-performing sector, but it would be remiss of us not to add that it was up 1.90% at its high earlier in the session... The fading sponsorship from the energy sector, though, hasn't derailed the market as there has been a commensurate pickup in buying activity across the other nine economic sectors... At the moment, telecom services (-0.30%), industrials (-0.28%), and consumer discretionary (-0.13%) are the only sectors in the red... Areas of relative strength include health care (+0.30%), consumer staples (+0.21%), and utilities (+0.23%), which are mostly defensive in nature, but information technology (+0.19%) is faring okay thanks to advances in the software and semiconductor groups... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1321/1724. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1162/1643. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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