Market Briefing---Lane (medium)
NYSE---Deb (fast)
>> once again we welcome you to “world financial report”. i’m lane bajardi in new york. there was more evidence today that factories are starting to recover from an iraq war slump. manufacturing in the philadelphia area expanded this month for the first time since february. the federal reserve bank of philadelphia’s factory index rose to four from minus 4.8 in may. economists had expected the reading to be a point higher than that. the positive readings indicated that more manufacturers in the survey said business improved. the six-month outlook was the highest since june of 2002. one other economic note. the leading indicators figure from may came out today. that number was 1%. the estimate was for a rise of 6/10 of a percent. it was 1/10 of a person in the month april. unemployment lines across the u.s. got a bit shorter last week vaget new claims for benefits fell for the second week in a row. but it was the 18th straight week that they have stayed above 400,000. that’s the level that many economists say means the economy is too weak to create jobs. other government data out today showed the deficit in the u.s. current account widened by 6% in the first quarter to a record 136 billion. this is the broadest measure of america’s standing in the international trade because it includes investments.
>> the benchmark indexes posted their biggest decline for the month on concern this year’s rally has pushed prices too high given the outlook for corporate profits. running down the numbers for you dow jones industrial average down 114 points, 9179. the s&p slipping below 1,000, lower at 15 points to 994. nasdaq composite off 28.5 points. new york stock exchange volume 1.5 billion shares. declines outpacing advancers by a two-to one margin. the nasdaq volume, same story. just under $2 billion shares with a two to one margin in favor of losers t wilshire 5000 down 1.5%, showing the broadest measure of the market. treasury notes rose after the philadelphia fed report which bolstered expectations, the federal reserve will cut interest rates by half a percentage point. 10-year note up 6/10 of a percent, yielding 3.34%. five-year note up 9/10 percent. take a look at the short end, you see nearly a quarter point gain for the three year, 5/32 up for the two-year. the dollar fell against the euro for the first day in four after that manufacturing report. you can see the number there. dow and the s&p having their biggest drops in a month. deborah kostroun is at the new york stock exchange to tell us more about today’s session. deb.
>> well, that’s right, lane. in fact, just a couple of days ago the dow jones industrial average hit its best level year to date. that was 9,323. we are giving back here just a little bit. in fact, glikenhaus helps manage $1 billion, says this has been a tremendous move up but not reinforced by earnings growth. he says the rally is either over or is going to end soon. he also says that the market’s advance will end in the next two to three weeks and the three-year-old bear market will continue. other traders that i talked to today sags that we have so much on our plate, of course tomorrow will be a pretty big day as we do have that quadruple witching. then, of course, as we get toward the end of june we have the rebalancing of the russell 2000. we have the end not only of the quarter but also the end of the half year, so a lot of positioning might be going on until that time. obviously the big story today coming out of g.e., that that really had an impact on many of the other industrials as they were one of the biggest drags in the s&p 500. of course, the big story is that g.e. is getting ipts full year estimates lowered for 2003 by five different analysts, so the industrials led lower from spillover from that. also drug stocks lower for the second day in a row. forest labs, the big culprit here, this after their experimental medicine medimine failed in a study with patients who had mild to moderate alzheimer’s, pharmaceuticals a big drag on the market. broker dealers once again as we’ve been hearing earnings from many of the brokerage firms, morgan stanley reported their earnings yesterday. but they got downgraded today by j.p. morgan and also u.b.s. warburg.
>> deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange. now, percentage-wise the nasdaq composite fell more than the dow or the s&p 500 today. anthony massucci has more on the nasdaq’s drop.
