PortfolioCrafter - Market Commentary 10/31/05
October 31st, 2005 / 10:42 pm / by portfoliocrafter
Stocks jumped on Monday at the end of an otherwise tough month for Wall Street, in which worries about inflation and slower earnings and economic growth dominated. The rally was led by the Nasdaq.
Today, the Nasdaq composite closed up 30.42 or 1.5% to 2,120.30, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 37.30 or 0.4% to 10,440.07, and the Standard & Poor 500 ended up 8.60 or 0.7% to 1,207.01. For the month, the Nasdaq lost 1.4%, the S&P 500 lost 1.8% and the Dow 30 lost 1.2%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor closed up 7.77 or 1.8% to 432.64, the Amex Oil Index closed up 16.64 or 1.7% to 985.62, the Dow Jones Home Construction Index closed up $21.18 or 2.5% to $859.67.
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, there were 24 advancing stocks for every seven decliners on volume of 1.9 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by 21 to 8 as 1.91 billion shares changed hands.
Amongst takeover bids, Gold producer Barrick Gold closed down $1.95 or 7% to $25.25, after making a bid for rival Placer Dome which closed up $3.44 or 20% to $19.95. The deal is worth $9.2 billion in cash and stock. Saks announced that it was selling its Northern department store group to Bon-Ton Stores for $1.1 billion in cash. Saks closed up $1.49 or 9% to $18.15, and Bon-Ton Stores closed up $3.39 or 20% to $20.05. Novartis said it would buy the remaining stake Chiron for $5.1 billion. This made Chiron end up $0.74 to $44.14. Spanish telecom provider Telefonica has also agreed to buy mobile phone company O2 PLC for $31.6 billion. PMC-Sierra also closed up $0.76 or 12% to $7.10, after the chipmaker said it had agreed to buy Agilent Technologies Inc which ended up $1.01 to $32.01. Wal-Mart Stores closed up $1.81 or 4% to $47.31, Caterpillar ended up $1.52 or 3% to $52.59, and General Motors Corp. closed up 14 cents at $27.40.
Amongst losers Qualcomm closed down $1.31 or over 3% to $39.76, Knight-Ridder Inc. retreated 1.6%, dropping 89 cents to $53.38, shares of Kellogg Co. lost nearly 5%, closing down $2.29 at $44.17.
U.S. light crude oil for December delivery slipped $1.46 to settle at $59.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural-gas futures fell to their lowest level in more than six weeks as mild weather eased seasonal heating concerns. Natural gas for December delivery fell 6.5% to close at $12.205 per million BTU.
All the best,
Manuel Jesus-Backus
The Portfolio Crafter
