Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks Features Hewlett-Packard, Advanced Micro Devices, Big Lots, Phelps Dodge, and EOG Resources.

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the August 17 edition of Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks are Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), Big Lots (NYSE:BLI), Phelps Dodge (NYSE:PD), and EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG). 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=PRSHS1M&PAGE=1 .

Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks for Wednesday, August 17, 2005:

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 - 1,223.28) 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.

Some of my colleagues here at Schaeffer's make frequent television appearances, so we have TVs scattered around our offices. This morning at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time the energy inventory figures came out and I deliberately turned my back on the nearest set and watched, instead, an intraday chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). The plunge told me all I needed to know. As it turned out, the EIA reported that crude oil inventories rose 241 thousand barrels against a consensus rise of 1.25 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell 4.97 million barrels, substantially more than the consensus estimate for a fall of 1.5 million barrels. Distillate inventories rose 1.19 million but the consensus estimate saw a rise of 1.9 million barrels.

Interestingly, though, the markets shrugged it off. Ten minutes after the news, all three of the major indexes were green, almost as if yesterday's major declines have put stock prices right into investors' comfort zones.

The granddaddy of Silicon Valley, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), is an SPX winner today after reporting third-quarter results yesterday after the bell. Excluding items, earnings soared by 46 percent to $1.1 billion, or 36 cents per share, five cents better than the consensus estimate. The stock was upgraded by Bear Stearns to "outperform" from "peer perform," and Merrill Lynch raised its price target for HPQ to $31 from $28. Prudential upgraded the stock too, but I was interested to notice that Credit Suisse First Boston reiterated the stock at "neutral." From a contrarian perspective, such caution suggests the possibility of further rises. On August 15 we recommended HPQ's November 22.50 call to subscribers to our Schaeffer's Leverage Series with a maximum entry price of 2.50. At last check the contract was bid at 4.40.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), which competes with Intel (INTC), is soaring today. Perhaps it's riding the coattails of HPQ, which uses both INTC and AMD silicon to power its PCs. But today's news at AMD is the appointment of Jeff VerHeul as Corporate Vice President of Silicon Design. According to Hoovers, 80 percent of PC makers choose INTC chips over AMD, but the underdog is touting its AMD64 processor technology, "the gold standard in 64-bit computing." Mr. VerHeul joins AMD after a 25-year career at IBM.

Big Lots (NYSE:BLI) is up today after reporting second-quarter losses of nine cents per share compared to the consensus estimate losses of 11 cents per share. According to Hoovers, BLI is the nation's number-one closeout retailer, with about 1,460 Big Lots stores in 46 states. It sells a variety of brand-name products that have been overproduced or discontinued.

When I checked at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, Phelps Dodge (NYSE:PD) was the worst-performing stock in the SPX. Everything had been going so well. A bull run that started on May 16 added more than 46 percent to PD's price by the close of trading on Monday. But yesterday PD started to fall and breached support of its 10-day moving average. Today it gapped down, clean through support from the 20-day trendline. News is thin, and I don't think the full story has emerged yet.

And finally... On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the falls in the price of crude oil futures for September delivery were measured in dollars today, not cents. If you scroll down to the table of the SPX's biggest losers, nearly all of them are oil stocks. EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG) is one of the few that has an actual news story. AG Edwards reiterated the stock at "buy" today. Perhaps this was just buy-on-the-dip advice but it does highlight the fact that oil stocks are still seen as winners, even on days when they're losing.

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Gainers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=13912 .

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Losers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=13912 .

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About Schaeffer's Investment Research (www.SchaeffersResearch.com)

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 .