MARKET TALK: Don't Regulate Just For Sake Of Regulating
07 Mar 15:03
Edited by Thomas Granahan
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
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3:03 (Dow Jones) Greenspan earlier cautioned against unnecessary regulation
of energy derivatives during questioning from the Senate Banking Committee.
"There is a significant downside if we regulate where we do not have to in this
area," he said. (RSC)
2:45 (Dow Jones) As always with the yen, there seems to be a mixed story
behind today's big move. Some signs that foreigners have indeed been buying up
Japanese shares, but many say they're not. "We're sort of neutral at the moment
on Japan," says Edgar Peters, chief investment officer at Panagora Asset
Management. "There still aren't any real signs that the problems are being
taken care of." (GMM)
2:36 (Dow Jones) One drawback of e-tickets used to be that you couldn't
re-book or connect from one airline to another without paper tickets. But
that's changing. UAL's (UAL) United just launched "interline e-ticketing" with
AMR's (AMR) American that allows the two carriers to accept e-ticket customers
from each other. United already has a similar service with Air Canada,
Continental (CAL) and Northwest (NWAC). The move will likely further increase
the usage of e-tickets and help carriers slash costs. More than 73% of United's
domestic customers use e-tickets. (SON)
2:19 (Dow Jones) Add Morgan Stanley to the list of those high on small caps.
The pick up in economic growth and attractive relative valuations should drive
the outperformance, firm says, adding that its macro analysis points to a
growth recommendation, but its concerns about tech and its importance to growth
keeps it neutral as to value/growth outperformance. Consumer discretionary and
industrials are favorite sectors, while underweight is warranted in IT,
financials, and staples. (TG)
2:01 (Dow Jones) No hard newsto account for the 13% rise in shares of online
gaming software provider CryptoLogic (CRYP), though the company has been
meeting with retail investors in the U.S. and Canada this week reminding them
that CryptoLogic has remained profitable during the downturn and has several
growth initiatives planned, said CryptoLogic director of communications Nancy
Chan-Palmateer. Shares of the Toronto company have been under pressure in
recent months as several credit-card issuers, including MBNA (KRB) and Capital
One (COF), stopped processing online gaming transactions. (SEW)
1:49 (Dow Jones) A few days after bumping up his target on the DJIA, Salomon
Smith Barney's Tobias Levkovich out with another bullish note, saying stocks
can do well if the dollar weakens (that's good news for bulls, because the
dollar is getting hit further Thursday). Essentially, the economic prospects of
the country tend to overwhelm bouts of dollar strength or weakness, he says.
"Dollar weakness could further stoke the Industrials names as they become more
competitive globally," he adds. (TG)
1:38 (Dow Jones) Expanded by popular demand: With the recent big rally and
with more stocks approaching and testing resistance levels, the Seidman/Skupp
options team at Miller Tabak & Co. had produced a list of 34 stocks trading
near 52-week-highs but whose defensive puts nonetheless are reasonably-priced.
Today they added more names to that list, including Ann Taylor (ANN), Applied
Materials (AMAT), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), Lockheed Martin (LMT)
and Maytag (MYG). Just in case you were looking for downside protection and
needed some ideas. (KT)
1:29 (Dow Jones) Stocks have a softish tone to them, though things were a
little worse earlier. Greenspan's comments didn't help because they were widely
expected, and more positive economic data - in the form of productivity and
jobless claims - can only do so much in the near term for a market that has
been on fire. Dick Dickson, who watches the charts at Hilliard Lyons, says the
majority of his short-term indicators are at overbought extremes. On the flip
side, the market appeared to take a "so what" attitude to overbought readings
yesterday. "This is usually the case in the early stages of strong rallies, so
we will be carefully watching what happens in the market over the next few
days," he says. (TG)
1:13 (Dow Jones) "The New Era strikes back," proclaims GKST economist Brian
Wesbury, who says real GDP could grow at a rate approaching 5% during the
second half of this year. (JCC)
1:01 (Dow Jones) Office superstore retailers are well set for current stage
of the economic cycle, Goldman says. Its analysis suggests same-store sales
growth for Staples (SPLS) and Office Depot (ODP) is much more closely tied to
industrial production than to consumer spending, contrasting with the likes of
Home Depot (HD) and Wal-Mart (WMT). Sees operating margin expansion for both
Staples and Office Depot without sales upside, and anticipates some
acceleration in same-store growth off depressed levels. The stocks should
continue to benefit from this cyclical dynamic as production growth picks up.
(TG)
12:48 (Dow Jones) Calpine (CPN) and other power producers are having another
fine trading day. Goldman Sachs' Jonathan Raleigh admits there has been an
improvement in sentiment, as investors begin to recognize that liquidity issues
aren't as dire as feared. Also helping: both power prices and economic
indicators are strengthening, he said. Still, Raleigh notes investors shouldn't
overlook short-covering, which has been a key factor in driving prices higher.
For example, the short interest in Calpine recently peaked at more than 70
million shares; compare this with 300 million shares outstanding. CPN up 8.6%
at $11.80. (CCC)
12:34 (Dow Jones) Most notable about today's 3.5% jump in the JPY is the
relative calmness of the European currencies vs. the dollar, says Ashraf Laidi,
at MG Financial. "This is quite different from the Oct. 1998 collapse in
USD/JPY, which was accompanied by a decline in the USD against the European
currencies," he says. This lends some support to the notion that this is
strictly a Japan-driven play, rather than a global growth-driven play. USD/JPY
127.05, EUR/USD $0.8796. (GMM)
12:23 (Dow Jones) Mortgage rates rose modestly this week on news of economic
strength, Freddie Mac says. For the week ending March 8, 30-year fixed rate
mortgages averaged 6.87%, up from 6.80% last week. The average for 15-year
mortgages rose to 6.37% from 6.28% last week, and the average for 1-year ARM
rose to 5.07% from 4.94% a week ago. Fees and points for all mortgage types
remained unchanged at 0.7%.
12:11 (Dow Jones) Americans hitting the road is good news for Cendant (CD),
which provides travelers with rental cars and lodging at any of its several
hotels. So when J.P. Morgan got a whiff that that travel is improving that's
enough for the firm to raise its 2002 EPS for Cendant. "Based on proprietary
research and anecdotal data, we believe travel volumes for the first half of
the year will be substantially higher than we previously expected," said
analyst Amanda Tepper, who repeated her buy rating on the stock yesterday.
(CCW)
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 03-07-02
03:03 PM |
