PortfolioCrafter - Market Commentary 10/26/05
October 27th, 2005 / 1:21 am / by portfoliocrafter
Today stocks slipped as investors ignored falling oil prices and focused on long-term interest rates that hit seven-month highs and mixed quarterly earnings. Investors were worried over higher borrowing costs and disappointing earnings from Boeing Co., Amazon and Anheuser-Busch Cos.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 32.89 or 0.3% to 10,344.98, the Standard & Poor 500 finished down 5.16 or 0.4% to 1,191.38, and the Nasdaq composite ended down 9.40 or 0.4% to 2,100.05. Additionally, the Amex Networking closed down 4.76 or 2% to 226.13.
Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners by more than 21 to 10 on volume of 1.83 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers almost 17 to 11 as 1.87 billion shares changed hands.
The losers included Amazon.com down $6.43 or almost 14% to $39.74, after reporting lower earnings that missed estimates. The online retailer’s earnings dropped 44% and its fourth-quarter sales forecast was below Wall Street expectations. Flextronics closed down $2.90 or 24% to $9.20, after reporting fiscal second-quarter earnings that missed forecasts and issuing a third-quarter profit outlook that is below estimates. Lucent Technologies closed down $0.18 or nearly 6% to $2.93, after reporting weaker quarterly earnings. Guidant finished down $2.25 to $62.45, Medtronic ended down $0.23 to $56.74, and St Jude Medical finished down $0.75 to $47.52. Boeing slipped 2.7% after reporting quarterly earnings that grew from a year ago but missed forecasts. The share closed down at $65.10. Stun gun maker Taser International fell about 7.6% to $6.45 after the company posted earnings of $270,945. Anheuser-Busch fell 2.2% to $40.80.
Amongst gainers, Wal-Mart Stores, closed up 19 cents at $45.58, and International Paper rose 2.4% to $28.68 after Citigroup upgraded the stock to buy from hold.
There was a 3% slide in oil prices today. U.S. light crude oil for December delivery fell $1.78 to settle at $60.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
All the best,
Manuel Jesus-Backus
The Portfolio Crafter
