Reply #75: 2:51 ESTMarket Update

[RawMaterials]

2:30PM: Indices trades near improved levels but the recovery effort stalls, as the Nasdaq still leads its blue chip counterparts into negative territory... Recently, shares of Apple Computer (AAPL 66.13 -2.83) plummeted after the computer maker said it sold 4.5 mln iPods in the 2004 holiday quarter, merely matching or coming in slightly lower than what many analysts had expected... Other technology laggards have been TASR (-24.5%), CIEN (-5.0%), JDSU (-2.4%), EBAY (-1.6%) and SUNW (-1.3%)...NYSE Adv/Dec 1288/1971, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1043/2041

2:00PM: Market lifts off its worst levels but losses still remain hefty... On the Dow, 28 of the 30 components have lost ground... Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 19.98 -0.83) has been under the most pressure after it was downgraded to Underweight from Equal weight by Morgan Stanley while AA, GE, INTC, MCD, MRK and PFE have all lost in excess of 1.0% on the day... Extending yesterday's 2.0% gain, however, has been 3M (MMM 84.45 +0.51)... The Dow recently set a new low for the month, probing its 50 day average near the 10550 level...NYSE Adv/Dec 1075/2178, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 797/2267