Reply #49: little more

[RawMaterials]

BRIEFING.COM

Stocks were under pressure most of the session and closed in negative territory, despite noteworthy M&A news and a sell off in oil, as mixed earnings reports, disappointing GDP figures and worries related to Iraqi elections fueled broad-based weakness... If not for last-minute, futures-related buying, the major indices may have posted weekly declines for the fourth consecutive week... While Proctor&Gamble's (PG 53.85 -1.47) $57 bln all-stock bid to buy Gillette (G 51.29 +5.61) fueled modest market gains at the open, little follow through on the part of buyers, despite a resurgence in M&A activity (i.e. SBC - AT&T merger), only added to the frustration... MSFT, PG, ADM, CVX and TRB were just a few companies to have their better than expected quarterly results offset by disappointments from blue chips like MCD, MYG, HAL and APC while a weaker than expected advance Q4 GDP read of 3.1% (consensus 3.5%), due in large part to a steep decline in exports, also weighed on equities... Investors were also reluctant hesitant to hold stocks heading into a weekend filled with uncertainty regarding the risk of violence and pipeline disruptions related to Sunday's Iraqi elections... Not even a 3.0% sell off in crude oil prices ($47.35/bbl -$1.49), ahead of OPEC's upcoming meeting to mull over output quotas, has attracted buyers... News late in the day that the U.S. Court of Appeals found Merck's (MRK) patent claims for Fosamax to be invalid also added to the overall negative sentiment... Electronics manufacturing services (-2.9%) led the charge lower after Sanmina-SCI (SANM 6.24 -1.18) was downgraded by multiple brokers following weaker-than-expected Q1 results and lowered Q2 revenue guidance... Energy (-1.0%) was also weak on the heels of disappointing Q4 earnings from Halliburton (HAL 41.51 -2.00) and a 3.4% decline in crude oil prices ($47.18 /bbl -$1.66)... The commodity, which had flirted with the psychologically critical $50/bbl level yesterday, sold off as traders expected OPEC to leave output unchanged at this Sunday's meeting in Vienna... Technology was under pressure across the board, as modest gains in disk drive (+0.7%), after strong Q4 results from SanDisk (SNDK 24.79 +2.54), failed to offset weakness in software (-1.2%) and semiconductor (-1.0%)... Health care, financial, retail and transportation, excluding a 1.3% gain in airline, were also weak while brokerage, utility and materials posted modest gains and homebuilding (+0.8%) halved yesterday's losses (-1.6%) as bond yields fell to their lowest levels of the week... That said, treasuries closed near their highs of the session following the Commerce Dept.'s weak Q4 GDP figure, lifting the benchmark 10-year note up 15 ticks to yield 4.16%... Today's rally closed the 10-year up 20 ticks to yield 4.13%, but the benchmark treasury closed nearly unchanged on the week as yields bounced around between 4.12% and 4.38%... Other economic news included the Q4 employment cost index, which rose a smaller 0.7% (consensus +0.8%), the weakest overall rise since Q2 1999... NYSE Adv/Dec 1532/1774...Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1263/1793