Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks Features Bristol-Myers Squibb, Interpublic Group, ConocoPhillips, NVIDIA, and Microsoft.

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the March 22 edition of Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks are Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY), Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks is just one of the many free market commentaries written everyday at www.SchaeffersResearch.com - the home of Bernie Schaeffer and Schaeffer's Investment Research. For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you free via email every day click on the following link. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PRSHS12M&PAGE=1 .

Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks for Wednesday, March 22, 2006:

A daily feature available on SchaeffersResearch.com is the "SPX Hot Stocks" column. Each afternoon, we will provide a list of the day's top-20 performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index (SPX - 1,301.52) as well as the bottom-20 names. Featured along with this table will be news that is moving some of the securities.

NOTE: Stocks trading under $5 per share have been eliminated from this listing of the top-20 and bottom-20 performing stocks.

At 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, the SPX is up 0.33 percent, breaking back above the 1,300 level. Of the 500 components of the SPX, 62 percent are gaining ground.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) was the leader on the SPX, up 11.7 percent. Along with Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), the company announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with Apotex to delay the company's generic version of their blood-thinning drug until 2011. The stock visited levels we last saw in May 2005, and seems to be holding on to most of the gains.

Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG) reported a fourth-quarter loss this morning, following a profit in the year-ago period. The loss amounted to $22.9 million, or eight cents per share, compared with net income of $130.3 million, or 22 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue fell by 3.6 percent to about $1.9 billion. Nevertheless, the stock was up 6.4 when we grabbed our figures.

Oil and oil-related stocks are clustering together near the top of the SPX rankings today. I've had my eye on ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Valero Energy (VLO), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), B.J. Services (BJS), EOG Resources (EOG), and XTO Energy (XTO). The Energy Department announced this morning that crude oil inventories for the previous week dropped by an unexpected 1.3 million barrels to a total of 338.6 million barrels. This decline marked the first pullback in supplies since early February. Gasoline inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels, while distillate supplies fell by 800,000 barrels. The American Petroleum Institute reported a 54,000-barrell decline in crude inventories. The group also announced that gasoline supplies climbed by 308,000 barrels, while distillate stocks fell by 970,000 barrels.

Turning to the luckless losers, I mentioned in this column yesterday that NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) gapped higher and hit its highest level since March 2002. The jump was triggered by an upgrade from Lehman Brothers to "overweight" from "equal weight." The broker believes that NVDA will demonstrate revenue growth. The stock has been in a pronounced uptrend since August 2004, with very strong support from its 10-week moving average. Today, the stock has slipped back, and it was resting on support at its 10-day moving average by lunchtime. So, from yesterday's table of top-performing stocks on the SPX, NVDA leaps to our table of worst performers today. If you're bullish on NVDA, this could be a good entry point.

Incidentally, news emerged today that NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Hybrid Graphics Ltd., a developer of embedded 2D and 3D graphics software for handheld devices. Hybrid Graphics will become a subsidiary of NVDA and will continue to market and sell its products under the Hybrid name.

And finally, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) revealed late last night that the finished consumer version of its Vista operating system won't be available until next year, although the business user version is on track for shipment in November. This begs a question or two, of course, but the delay is only two months, so this isn't the biggest deal for MSFT. However, PC makers might feel the pinch during the important holiday season. Worth keeping in mind.

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Gainers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=15605 .

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Losers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=15605 .

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Schaeffer's Investment Research, founded by Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, is a financial information and trading resources company. It publishes Bernie Schaeffer's Option Advisor, the nation's leading options subscription newsletter. The firm's contrarian approach focuses on stocks with technical and fundamental trends that run counter to investor expectations. The firm's website, http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com , is recognized as one of the leading information sources for stock and options traders and was cited as the top options website by both Forbes and Barron's. Click here for more details about Schaeffer's trading methodology: http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/method .