NYSE---Deb (fast)
>> stocks tried to stage a late day comeback but failed and it leads the markets down for the year continuously. let’s check with deborah kostroun at new york stock% exchange for more on today’s action and what has been going on in the equity markets . deb?
>> well, mike, if you take a look at where we are year to date, the picture really doesn’t look all that good. the dow down 3.9% for the year. the s&p down 1.9%. nasdaq down 4.7%. that seems to be the real laggard even though tech stocks performing pretty well today. semis in the leadership position.% phowever, for the previous four days, they haven’t been. the dow and aoepbt s&p now down five straight days. at least for the s&p that is the longest losing streak in a month. so we do have the markets once again at new lows for the year, for the dow and s&p. many traders saying even though we actually have had pretty good guidance and good earnings so far, the brokers have been issuing pretty good earnings. the dow actually now 690 points off its february 11 high. that was when the dow was above 10,700. seems like so far away. the good corporate news in terms of guidance really has not been doing anything to help this market , at least for now. because if you remember, we have been hearing about companies telling us about their first quarter and in many cases many of the companies have been saying the first quarter will do better than expected. then today we had a couple of economic numbers. really didn’t excite the market that much. durable goods order even though we had a revision for the january number, the february number coming in pretty well. new home sales, third best number on record. however, it didn’t help the homebuilders. homebuilders were lower once again in today’s session. homebuilders have been performing well over the past year. also, brokers under pressure all day today. goldman sachs yesterday reported their earnings and goldman sachs was higher yesterday. many of the other brokers all lower. they reported really good earnings over the past week. steel stocks generally lower. reliant steel, however, another company that said their first quarter profit will almost triple from a year ago. that as demand for steel and metal improves. they’re passing it on in the form of higher costs to their customers. steel looking at inventories near 12-year lows. back to you in the studio, mike.
>> deborah kostroun. president bush says he is concerned that rising gasoline prices may weaken the u.s. economy. surpbling oil prices pushed the ample price for a gallon of unleaded gas this week to a record $1.73. bush is in talks with major oil producers in order to keep splice flow to get u.s. the president opposes increasing the gasoline tax to curb consumption or suspending oil deliveries to the strategic petroleum reserve. bipartisan lawmakers urge the deliveries be suspended until prices ease.
>> we know filling the s.p.r. play as role in setting oil prices and this administration itself has halted filling the s. in the past, just a year ago. at some point people have to wonder why the white house is dog more for opec than it is doing for the american driver. ao evener skwreu secretary spencer abraham told congress oil inventories are crucial to national security in the event of a supply disruption. the bush administration wants the reserve to reach full capacity of 700 million barrels by next year which is about 35 days worth of u.s. oil demand. crude oil down 1.1% to close out the regular session at $33.03. american airlines, delta and other major carrier vs.ed a planes and routes to counter competition from low-cost airlines. they have also cut fares as discount carriers expand into their market . that may benefit travelers but one money manager says it may hurt investors. he expects the big airlines to lead the industry in posting loss this is year rather than profiting from growing travel demand. another analyst says the sixth largest high cost airlines can protect themselves by increasing capacity but it will be unprofitable capacity. baseball’s opening day just around the corner. for fans in new york who want to watch the yankees on cable tv, a grand slam home run decision from a three-person arbitration panel. we’ll explain and check the closing stock prices for cablevision, next.
