RISING ENERGY PRICES WEIGH ON MARKET
HEATING OIL AND NATURAL GAS SURGE... Heating oil prices surged to the highest level in twenty years today. Natural gas prices jumped more than 30%. As a result, energy shares were the top (and only) winners for the day. Oil service and natural gas stocks were the leadership in the oil patch. Earlier today, we showed a couple of energy leaders -- Burlington Resources and Nabors Industries. Here are a couple more.
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AIRLINES DESCEND ON HIGHER FUEL COSTS... Transportation stocks were especially hard hit by the energy surge. Our mid-day report focused on trucking stocks, which were among the biggest losers. Among the airlnes, Continental and Northwest were the biggest percentage losers.
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BEST AND WORST IN RETAIL... There were a couple of notable retail winners and losers today. Kohl Corp. tumbled over 3 points to the lowest level since last October. And it did it on rising volume. By contrast, Lowes jumped more than 2 points on very heavy volume. That's good action. Its relative strength line (vs. the S&P 500) has already broken a five-month downtrend line.
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NASDAQ 100 FAILS INITIAL TEST OF RESISTANCE... Our noon update warned that the Nasdaq 100 was encountering resistance at its 50- and 200-day moving averages. It failed that first test. The NDX lost 21 points and was the day's biggest percentage loser. Since this was the strongest of the market's major indexes, any failure at this point could depress the entire market.
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