Friday, April 8, 2011

Mixed stocks while gold and oil rise

Dow fell 23, decliners barely ahead of over advancers & NAZ was off 6. Bank stocks slipped taking the Financial Index back to where it was 3 months ago.

S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value	222.60
Change	-1.03 (-0.5%)

The Alerian MLP Index inched up a fraction to above 383, good enough for another record, while the REIT index fell 1 to the 233s. Junk bond funds are doing little. Treasuries fell, extending a 3rd weekly loss, as traders added to bets on inflation with the dollar dropping to the lowest since Dec 2009. The yield on the 2 year note is 0.81%, more than double its lows last year, as investors are betting on high interest rates. The yield on the 10 year Treasury bond rose 3½ basis points to 3.59% (a 2 month high). Oil climbed above $111 for the first time in 30 months on skepticism that Libyan output will rebound when fighting ends & as a weaker dollar bolstered investor demand for commodities. Gold rose, setting a record for the 4th time this week, as a weakening dollar boosted demand for the metal.

JPMorgan Chase Capital XVI (AMJ)

Treasury yields:

U.S. 3-month		0.04%
U.S. 2-year		0.81%
U.S. 10-year		3.59%

CLK11.NYM

...Crude Oil May 11

...111.31

...

1.01

(0.9%)

GCJ11.CMX

....Gold Apr 11

.........1,467.20

...

8.70

(0.6%)

Toyota Plans to Resume Output at All Japan Plants April 18

Photo: Bloomberg

Toyota (TM), the last of Japan’s major automakers to announce plans to reopen domestic auto plants, will resume output at all local factories on Apr 18. TM will restart production at about 50% of full capacity & continue manufacturing through Apr 27. Nissan it will begin restarting car-assembly plants from Apr 11, while Honda said it would restart Japan parts production this week & auto plants from April 11. TM, the world’s largest carmaker, closed most domestic factories after the earthquake & tsunami on Mar 11. TM rose 92¢ in US trading.

Toyota to Resume Output at All Japan Plants After Disruptions From Quake

Toyota Motor Corp Ltd Ord (TM)

Photo: Bloomberg

Acer, maker of this netbook, started selling its first tablet computer as it hopes to boost profit following 3 qtrs of falling sales & declining market share. Pre-orders for the Iconia Tab A500, to be sold exclusively through Best Buy (BBY) stores at $449.99, begins today. The Google (GOOG) Android-based device will be available Apr 24 said Taipei-based Acer, the world’s 2nd-largest laptop maker. Acer admits it may not be able to get back to the golden days, as notebook plus netbook may be only able to maintain single-digit growth compared to 20-30% in the past. But Acer has “an aggressive plan” to gain share of the tablet market in the next 2 years. The Iconia Tab A500 tablet has a 10.1-inch screen (similar in size to the iPad2) & is $50 cheaper. Acer’s cut-price strategy, led by low-cost netbooks, helped it overtake HP (HPQ) as the world’s largest maker of portable computers in Q3 of last year with an 18.3% share. But its share dropped to 14.9% in Q4 as tablets stole sales & slowing consumer demand hurt Acer. Competition is heating up for the iPad2.

Acer Starts Selling Tablet Computer as ‘Golden Days’ of Laptops Wane

Markets continue to lumber along as they have been doing all week. Dow is up just 10 this week & could end in the red. The Japanese earthquake was less severe than feared. The earthquake in DC is getting more attention as it looks like the gov will be shut tomorrow. Earnings season kicks off Mon evening when Alcoa (AA), a Dow stock, reports. Analysts expect 27¢ ($1.35 for 2011), up from 10¢ last year.