The Market Today

This is truly frightening. Wall Streeters are walking today. Do these transit workers have any idea what they’ve done? Cabs are impossible to get. Some people have to carpool! I mean…ick.
I don’t know how much longer this can go on. I’m all for labor unions, but couldn’t they strike during better weather. Planning, fellas! Anyway, stocks bounced around for most of the day and finished just a wee bit lower. This was the third straight down day, the most since October. Our Buy List had another rough day, although not quite as bad as yesterday. The S&P 500 lost 0.02% and our Buy List fell 0.40%.
The good news is that Commerce Bancorp (CBH) raised its quarterly dividend by 9%. That’s always nice to see. Zimmer (ZMH), Dell (DELL), Biomet (BMET) and Stryker (SYK) all got hit today. Biomet comes out with earnings tomorrow. Melissa Davis at The.Street has an interesting story on Biomet and the orthopedic industry.
Outside our Buy List, FactSet Research Systems (FDS) reported earnings that were three cents a share higher than estimates. This is a neat little stock. I was troubled to see Electronic Arts (ERTS) say that this quarter will be “well below” expectations. ERTS used to be a “can’t miss” stock. Also, General Motors (GM) fell to an 18-year low. The company is recalling 425,000 vans due to bad seat belts. The Dow is only up 2.5% this quarter. For the last four years, the Dow has gained at least 7% in the fourth quarter.
Business Week has an article about the tech boom in Israel.

Posted by on December 20th, 2005 at 5:55 pm


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