Boring just about sums up today's trading activity. After trading flat to down all day, the Dow and Nasdaq bounced back to close basically unchanged.
DJIA: 10959.87, down 2.49
S&P 500: 1287.61, up 1.55
Nasdaq Composite: 2317.00, up 0.40
The most interesting news of the day did not receive much attention, and this is the news of credit card giant Mastercard going public sometime in 2006. I will be keeping an eye on this one because I think the long profit potential from this IPO could be substantial. If you happen to hear when Mastercard is going public, please post a comment on the website.
In other news today, Tyco International announced they were splitting into 3 companies, and the stock dropped 3 dollars after warning that results will miss analysts forecasts.
Tyco (TYC) could be another profitable play since spinoffs have had outstanding track records (IE- Zimmer (from BMY), Medco (from MRK), Genworth (from GE)).
The economic news of the day was the report on producer prices, and once again they are trying to get us to believe that inflation is not a problem. The commodities and raw materials sector is calling the producer price report a "pack of lies" as Gold rose to a 24-year high, aluminum prices hit a 17-year high, and base metals like zinc and lead also rose to records. So, whose fooling who?
This is earnings season, and along with it comes earnings warnings going forward. Once again, rumors are flying over America's quest to tell the rest of the world what to do. This week of course it is Iran's nuclear program.
I would not be as concern with Iran's nukes as I would China's, India's, or North Korea's. Oh, I forgot, we can't push those guys around. What we are finding out fast is we cannot push Iran around either. Iran has been an oil bonanza for the Chinese. Our "Winny the Poo" politicians better not sick their noses in this honey pot.
Monday, the market will be closed in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday. If anything important comes up, I'll let you know Monday.
