Today's prudentbear -->
Market Summary June 11, 2001
Posted Daily Between 5 and 6:30 PM EST
by Lance Lewis
Dollar Up, Stocks Down
Asia was weaker last night by about a percent after government
GDP data in Japan showed their economy had contracted by .2
percent in Q1. Europe was also down a percent this morning,
and the US futures were slightly weaker. We opened flat, had a
bit of a bounce, and then rolled over to fall down about a percent.
We danced around near those lows till about mid-afternoon when
a rally began that cut the loss on the day in half. Volume was
weak, again (.9 bil on the NYSE and 1.4 bil on the NASDAQ.)
Breadth was slightly negative on both exchanges. Big winners
were hard to find but the utilities had a bit of a bid as the UTY was
up 2 percent. Big losers were in the Internuts as the DOT lost 4
percent.
We got some more warnings out of the beloved semi sector this
morning. Semi equipment maker VSEA warned, saying, ”The
fundamentals that drive our customers' capital spending plans
have not improved during the quarter.” I guess they maybe are
not anticipating the spontaneous combustion of activity that
many stock traders are in the second half because they also
announced more layoffs as well as a two-week shutdown in July.
The SOX managed to give back 3 percent on the back of all that
news, which isn’t much considering the rally it had last week.
The rest of tech was generally weaker, and new lows started to
pick up. Of note is that JNPR fell another 7 percent today after its
warning on Friday (I think an analyst who was either physically or
mentally “on vacation” Friday also untouted it this morning.) So,
we got some follow through selling there even after the bad news
was out, which we might not have seen a week or two ago when
everyone had nothing but dreams of the second half in their
heads. Contract manufacturers were all under pressure after an
untout this morning as stocks like FLEX and JBL fell between 6
and 9 percent. Next to the semiconductor stocks, these shares
are probably some the most ludicrously priced tech stocks
around. Financials were lower again with the brokers being the
heaviest. The BKX fell a percent, and the XBD fell 3 percent. GE
slipped another 2 percent and continues to be real a drag on the
major indexes.
Oil rose another 58 cents. The XOI rose a touch, and the OSX fell
a percent. Gold slumped $7.20 to give back all of Friday’s gain.
Lease rates were quiet. The HUI fell 4 percent to give back about
half of Friday’s gain. The US dollar index finally busted through
120 to hit a new high as the buck moved higher against just about
every other piece of paper on the planet today and appears to be
possibly beginning a blow-off move. The euro went back to its
old zero-ways and slipped to a new low for the move below 84
cents before recovering slightly to close above that level. The
yen was a little weaker also after the weak GDP data last night,
and the pound slipped again as well. The commodity oriented
currencies like the Aussie dollar and Canadian dollar held up
rather well, which is supportive for gold prices. Treasuries were a
little higher on the day.
This week is a triple witch, and we also have the CPI and PPI later
this week. So, there’s likely to be a lot of motion. Today’s motion
certainly wasn’t bullish as a tiny bit of bad news from some
smaller companies seemed to be enough to tip stocks over
collectively, although the damage remained rather contained.
The big question continues to be (as it has been for the last few
weeks): when do people stop hoping and start selling?
Finally, I have had numerous email requests for some sort of
glossary containing the terms and symbols I frequently use. So,
I'm finally getting around to throwing something together, and it
should be up later this week for those that need it. |
