There were several events during the last week that are almost certainly clues to what is likely to happen in certain industries and the economy in general as Wall Street looks forward to the July through September period. The week was dominated by the launch of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and the extended glow for AT&T (NYSE: T), but in the broader picture, the news means very little.
Looking at other news:
Oil closed over $70 for the first time since late last summer. While the news may be good for Exxon (NYSE: XOM) and other big exploration and refinery companies, it will hurt industries from air freight to automotive.
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) hit a 52-week high, a sign that Wall Street believes the PC industry may have a good second half, especially with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) also trading near its high point.
An unusually broad number of stocks representing several important industries hit 52-week lows. While it would be expected that home builders like Beazer (NYSE: BZH) would struggle in a poor housing market, Blackstone (NYSE: BX), Circuit City (NYSE: CC), and one of the nation's largest banks, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) also touched bottoms.
General Motor's (NYSE:GM) stock hit a 52-week high, doubling from 18 months ago. Wall Street is assuming that even with stagnant sales, cost-cutting and the potential of a favorable outcome to UAW negotiations will spell profits for car companies. That is unless fuel prices keep new buyers away.
Short interest rose for most of the big-name Nasdaq stocks, a sign that a number of investors believe that the rally in tech stocks is ending.
Nintendo's market cap passed Sony's (NYSE: SNE), a sign that investors think that the PlayStation 3 will never be a huge success and that the lead that the Wii has taken won't be overcome. After a number of years, video gaming has a new king.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Retailers can't wait for Black Friday, open Thursday
Tiffany's serves up solid quarterly earnings
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-01-2007 @ 4:01PM
Michael Schneider said...
Oil prices above $70 is important psychologically but gasoline pump prices have been falling a little. The main concern is technicians think oil will continue to move up now that it has passed 70.
The Apple news does have meaning as good sales show the consumer is still buying. Coupled with the results for Research in Motion the news could help bolster tech near term.
The terror attacks in London and Scotland combined with the higher oil prices could hit some travel stocks early in the week. On a longer term basis, they probably won't matter much but people will realize our problems with terror won't end soon- regardless of what happens in Iraq.
Also noteworthy, things are happening in film. Michael Moore's "Sicko" opened strong and the new Disney/Pixar animated film Ratatouille is leading the box office and is being watched by analysts because it is the 1st Pixar film since Disney bought them. An item focused on the business side of this well reviewed film with comments by Merrill Lynch analyst Jennifer Reif Cohen and others along with some items on "Sicko" are available free at http://www.Barrelomedia.com.
Readers should check out items at the Apple Channel (green label) and Oil Alerts (light blue label, left side) at http://Barrelomoney.com. Also in (white label) the newest Weekend Stock Review at http://www.Barrelomoney.com you can find synopses of this week's Fox business block shows, including Bulls & Bears in which panelists talked about the iPhone and AT&T.