Market briefing --- Matt (slow)
NYSE --- Deb (fast)
Nasdaq --- Julie (slow)
Gas supplies --- Su (fast)
welcome to “world financial report.” i am matt nesto. we’ll give you the closing numbers here today. the superlative we’ll take hom is that five-day winning streak for the s&p 500. not big but green arrows in the book. the dow down seven points on the session. volume noteworthy in that it was slightly less than the 1.5 billion we’ve been averaging for the new york stock exchange so far this year. at the nasdaq, you see the volume there also less than average, about half a billion shares below our year-to-date average there. broader indexes mixed picture, as well. no real big percentage movers to speak of and the wilshire 5000 itself up .25%. bonds on the rise, durable goods orders coming in weaker than expected. also we saw new home sales plunging. more on that in a bit. and the dollar stuck in the middle of all of that, you see the latest trade there. it was lower generally in new york trade today. with the yen and the euro both down but the pound up. deb kostroun where she does her best work at the big board, new york stock exchange as we call it here. in a market that had to have something exciting in it rather than that seven points finished up.
>> there’s a lot of exciting things going on in the market although things slowing down a little bit and the volume coming down a little bit. what we did not see, no followthrough to the rally but that didn’t have so many traders concerned. and that’s really because things slowing down before the memorial day holiday. but also it was such a huge rally, the market needs to take a breather and seeing it take a breather. also bonds rising for a third straight day, that also helped things out and helped financials as financials led the market and remember, when financials, they provide loweredship and perform well, it’s good for the broader market . there was a relationship between financials and bonds. homebuilders lagged on slow home sales we saw in april. that was disappointing because homebuilders have been flying high the past few days. new home sales had their biggest drop in a decade. however, the median price increased to an all-time high. so a couple of conflicting things happening with homebuilders, sales slowing but prices increasing. toll brothers had a second-quarter profit of 37% up as strikeling of home sales as 30-year mortgage rates coming in at 6%, 1% more than record lows from last year. talking about financials, comprising 20% of the s&p 500, leadership in the financials is also very positive for the market . banks, the biggest gainer in the s&p 500. not only banks doing well but also the broker/dealers putting in an impressive performance and you see the gains we saw in the banks. merrill lynch lower, but in general, brokers with a good showing. also healthcare and equipment, competing stories here. you had boston scientific performing well and this on their new version of ataxus stent was effective, however, guidant to redesign a heart device, delaying it up to six months.
>> thank you very much. from the nyse to the nasdaq we go.the nasdaq up for the fourth straight day, outperforming the dow and s&p in this session. but also continuing to see lighter-than-average volume. julie hyman now with a wrap of the day’s events from the nasdaq marketsite in times square.
>> the nasdaq has quietly made its longest advance since january, gaining 4% in that time. the reason i say quietly is because it’s on some of the lowest trading volume that we have seen for the year. back on friday, did post the lowest trading volume on the year. on monday, second lowest figure. in may, not one day have we exceeded the trading volume average that we’ve seen for the year thus far. today is another example, the volume average for the year, 1.9 billion shares and today, closer to 1.6 billion traded. so it’s been considerably below normal for the month as a whole. but we have seen that rise for the past four days. banks and financials leading the climb in today’s session, finishing the session .6% higher. banks and financials doing well and they’ve risen the past four sessions, as well. telecommunications group, by the way, has risen for the past seven sessions and they have been the outperformer. in today’s session, we saw a bit of volatility. we had that press conference by the f.b.i. related to the terrorism concerns coming out. but we didn’t see much of a flip in the market because of that. traders saying that’s because we’ve had alerts in the past year or so. one group of stocks does react to these issues, security-related stocks. mace security is one of them, making personal defense sprays. magal securities systems, maker of security systems for airports. all of these companies gaining considerably today although if you look at the performance on the year, they have peaked and fallen back at least 30% from their highs on the year.
>> never to be out done, crude oil fell after an erratic day of trading, changing directions 17 times, up and down. investors clearly reacting to new information about supplies and also terrorism updates coming from washington today two days from the kickoff of the summer driving season. the energy department saying u.s. gas supplies unexpectedly fell last week, depending on which analyst you speak with. it says there’s less of a supply deficit than this time last year. su keenan has latest on the concerns that gas supplies may not meet demand.
>> investors struggling how it read that report and preparing for the holiday a few days ahead. oil analysts say there’s often a lot of stockpiling of gasoline going into the memorial day holiday. that’s why the associate director of energy futures at barclays capital says “it is disturbing to see supplies fall and refineries reduce operations when supplies are tight and demand is high.“ he predicts prices will be high for a long time. here’s what the u.s. energy department said today, that gasoline stockpiles fell 705,000 barrels. according to a bloomberg survey, the expectation was for an increase of a million barrels. the report also showed gasoline inventories last week were 1% lower than a year a year earlier. that was an improvement from last week’s 2.3% deficit compared to last year. oil analyst fadel gheit says the situation is profitable for the oil companies and some of them will make more money this quarter than they did all of last year.
>> we have record level oil and gas prices. we have record level gasoline prices, margins are near all-time high. so the profits are phenomenal.
>> gheit says the oil companies that make the most in times of rising prices are peer producers such as apache, kerr-mcgee and unocal.
>> if we believe oil prices have a breather here, that oil prices will gravitate closing to the $30 level, then you do not want to buy the producer, you want to buy the integrated oil companies―exxon-mobil, chevrontexaco.
>> to review, crude oil futures closed roughly 8% lower, $40.70 a barrel in new york’s trading. fimat’s mike fitzpatrick said many traders were trying to clean up positions ahead of the holiday and that added to the erratic pattern seen in the session.
>> thank you very much. exxon-mobil’s c.e.o. says widing margins on fuel production probably won’t prompt production of a new refinery in the country. crude oil refining capacity typically increases 1 to 3% a year due to new technology and better efficiency. there hasn’t been a new refinery constructed in the u.s. since 1976. our next guest finds is difficult to find stocks to buy because they’re too intensive.
