The Market Today

OK class, today’s lesson is on diversification. Even though Dell (DELL) is on our Buy List, we not only beat the market today, but we were up while the market was down.
That’s di-ver-si-fi-ca-tion. Even if one of your stocks gets a super-atomic wedgie, you can still make money. It really works.
The Fed’s rate hike put a slight damper on Wall Street today. Our two-day rally came to an end as the S&P 500 dropped 0.35%, but the Buy List gained 0.32%. Our big winner was Expeditors International (EXPD) which surged to a new high on great earnings. Fair Isaac (FIC), the credit scorer, reports tomorrow. The current estimate for FIC is 49 cents a share.
Dell (DELL) closed down 8.3% on 105 million shares. It was the most active stock today. Did you see that Frontier Airlines (FRNT) got to $9.60 today? The stock is up over $2 from its lows of two weeks ago.
Dell didn’t drag down the entire tech sector like I thought it would. The Nasdaq was down 0.29%. The Nasdaq 100, which is the 100 largest nonfinancial stocks on the Nasdaq, fell 0.17%. That index is traded under the QQQQ symbol.
Outside our Buy List, Procter & Gamble (PG) reported earnings of 77 cents a share, one penny ahead of estimates. P&G is a great company, but I’m very nervous of the merger with Gillette. I like Gillette too, but I hate mergers. I judge all mergers guilty until proven innocent. I’m rooting for them, but I’ll pass on the shares.
Electronic Arts (ERTS) earned 16 cents a share, which is about half of what it made last year. The stock got absolutely trashed earlier this year. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 5 cents a share so this is good news.
TXU Corp. (TXU), which had been a juggernaut for a few years, missed expectations today and fell 10.2%. The company raised guidance for next year. Interestingly, even though their profits plunged, their earnings-per-share increased due to heavy share buybacks. Also, Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) reported dramatically lower sales for October. This is a reflection of the end of employee pricing.
Here’s a chart of Dell today.
Dell2.bmp
If you haven’t done so, check out The Kirk Report. Also, Footnoted.org is digging through the third-quarter earnings reports.

Posted by on November 1st, 2005 at 5:23 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.