Daily Commentary from SIR Highlights the Following Stocks: Wal-Mart Stores, Target, OfficeMax, Applied Materials, KLA-Tencor.Business Editors CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2003 This daily report contains a brief commentary on the day's most notable activity and a table listing the most active calls and puts for the day. The Midday Options Update is published every day at SchaeffersResearch.com . For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you via email everyday click on the following link: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/addinfo . Today's Daily Commentary focuses on: Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :WMT (Windows Media Technologies) See Windows Media. ), Target (NYSE:TGT TGT Target TGT Ticket Granting Ticket (Windows 2000 Kerberos security) TGT Target Corp (stock symbol) TGT Turbine Gas Temperature TGT TDRSS Ground Terminal TGT Tank Gunnery Trainer TGT Target Tracker ), OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX OMX Office Max (stock symbol) ), Applied Materials (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :AMAT AMAT Applied Materials (stock symbol) AMAT Average Memory Access Time AMAT Automatic Message Accounting Transmitter AMAT Anti-Materiel (bomb or mine) AMAT Ageing Management Assessment Team ), KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ:KLAC). The market appears to be gasping for air after yesterday's impressive rally higher with the major market indexes are once again trapped in the red. However, investors finally received a taste of economic news following this week's drought. Weekly initial jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 366,00, but remain at near a two-year low. What's more, the four-week average dipped by 6,000 to 375,250. Elsewhere, the U.S. trade deficit widened by 4.4 percent during the month of September to $41.3 billion. Analysts had been expecting an increase to only $40.2 billion. During this time period, imports rose 3.3 percent to $127.4 billion while exports rose just 2.8 percent to $86.2 billion. An earnings report from Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) has hamstrung the retail sector today. The company posted a profit of $2 billion, or 46 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. , missing the Street estimate by a penny. Sales for the quarter rose 13.1 percent to $62.5 billion while same-store sales jumped 6.1 percent. Digging deeper into the retail sector, Target (NYSE:TGT) reported earnings of $302 million, or 33 cents per share, meeting the consensus estimate. Sales for the previous quarter sprung 10.7 percent higher to $11.29 billion. In addition, OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX) announced earnings of 18 cents per share, trouncing the Street estimate of 13 cents per share while same-store sales rose three percent. In other earnings news, Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) pleased investors last night, with its profit of six cents per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts had forecast a five-cent profit. The company also anticipates a 20-percent increase in orders in the current quarter while revenue is expected to climb five to eight percent over the fourth quarter. At 1:06 p.m. eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (DJIA DJIA See Dow Jones Industrial Averager (DJIA). - 9828.0) is down 0.21 percent and the S&P 500 Index (SPX (Sequenced Packet EXchange) The transport layer protocol in the NetWare operating system. Similar to the TCP layer in TCP/IP, it ensures that the entire message arrives intact. SPX uses NetWare's IPX as its delivery mechanism. - 1056.56) is lower by 0.18 percent. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP - 1964.2) is down 0.45 percent. At 1:07 p.m. in the options pits, 1,317,960 calls and 774,435 puts traded for a composite put/call ratio across all five exchanges of 0.58. The CBOE CBOE See: Chicago Board Options Exchange CBOE See Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). put/call ratio for equity options weighed in at 0.61. KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ:KLAC) makes an appearance on our most-active calls list this afternoon. The stock is seeing some heavy trading at its November 60 strike, with more than 6,500 contracts crossing the tape. Unfortunately, it's impossible to determine if this is the initiation of a new position since open interest already stands at more than 18,800 contracts. Optimism has been on the rise toward the security recently. Its Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio checks in at 0.86 and is lower than 73 percent of those taken over the past year. What's more, short interest has been headed lower since April, dropping from its peak of 25.7 million to 13.6 million shares. This accumulation is less than twice its average daily trading volume, reducing the likelihood of a covering rally. Only Wall Street is still exhibiting some skepticism, with 17 of the 26 analysts following the company rating it a "hold" or worse. This leaves ample room for future upgrades that could further lift the security. From a technical perspective, it's quite understandable to see this degree of optimism. The equity has outperformed the Nasdaq Composite since September 2002 as it rises on support from its 10-week and 20-week moving averages. Click the following link to see the Weekly Chart of KLAC since December 2002 with 10-Week and 20-Week Moving Averages: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=8872 . |
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