The Market Today

I have to admit that I feel asleep about midway through Dr. Bernanke’s hearing today. That’s, of course, far longer than I ever made though a Greenspan performance.
Let me get to the market first since this was once of the worst days for the Buy List we’ve had in a few days. The S&P dropped 0.39% and the Buy List was down 0.73%. We obviously can’t beat the market everyday, but that’s our objective. Seven of our stocks were up, 18 were down and one was unchanged.
Our biggest loser was Thor Industries (THO). The stock gave back about 3.8% today, although it had a big day yesterday when it rose 6% on an upgrade. Frontier Airlines (FRNT) took a big hit late this afternoon. Around 1:30, the stock started to sell off. This was surprising since oil continues to fall. The price for oil dropped just below $57 a barrel (fuel costs make up a very large part of airlines costs). Still, the little airline tends to be volatile.
Our financial stocks were also weak, which could have been due to Bernanke’s “hawkish” testimony. Brown & Brown (BRO) was down 1.7% and Commerce Bancorp (CBH) closed 2.2% lower. St. Jude (STJ) lost a little ground as a result of the J&J/Guidant merger. Some people on the Street thought St. Jude would be next if the Guidant deal fell through. Dell (DELL) was a bit higher today. Don’t tell anyone, but the stock came within a nickel of $30 a share.
The Dow got as high as 10740, but lost ground in the afternoon. If it held over 10705, it would have been the Dow’s highest close in eight months. The overall market was weighted down by a weak outlook from Target (TGT). As far the dreaded inflation report, wholesale core prices fell 0.3% last month.

Posted by on November 15th, 2005 at 4:55 pm


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