Indices
Dow - 174.02 at 10,611.20  -   Nasdaq - 28.30 at 2,030.32  -  S&P 500 - 17.43 at 1,184.16 

Market Wrap
(From Briefing):

Soaring oil prices and a weaker dollar coupled with mixed earnings and guidance kept a bearish bias intact from start to finish as virtually every sector closed in negative territory and recorded losses in excess of 1.0%... The Dow (-1.6%) logged its largest decline since Sept. 22 while the S&P and Nasdaq also lost more than 1.3%... The March crude oil futures contract was responsible for the bulk of the weakness and renewed inflation concerns after surging nearly 6.0% to close up $2.80 at $51.15/bbl following unusually cold weather in the Northeast U.S. and Europe and concerns over OPEC production cuts... A weaker dollar also contributed to the broad-based sell off and increased the demand for dollar-denominated commodities, such as oil and gold, as the latter surged 1.7% to close at $435.80 per ounce...The dollar fell more than 1.4% against both the euro (1.3254) and the yen (104.07) after South Korea's central bank announced plans to seek higher returns for its $200 bln in currency reserves with other currencies, deepening concerns that demand for U.S. treasuries will diminish throughout the rest of the world... Treasuries, which basically shrugged off the morning's consumer confidence data, traded in relatively tight ranges most of the session but closed lower ahead of the more important CPI reading, as the benchmark 10-year note closed down 6 ticks to yield 4.28%... Feb consumer confidence fell to 104.0, versus an upwardly revised Jan figure of 105.1, but checked in slightly better than the 103.0 economists expected... Meanwhile, Home Depot (HD 40.25 -1.77) and Merck (MRK 31.25 -1.36) were the Dow's largest laggards, with the former failing to post stronger than expected Q4 earnings and upside FY05 guidance while the latter, which soared 13% on Friday after an FDA advisory panel recommended its Vioxx drug be reinstated for sale in the U.S., succumbed to profit taking... Federated Dept. Stores (FD 55.24 -1.48) also kept a spotlight on retail (-2.4%) after it beat Q4 forecasts by a penny but guided Q1 earnings below expectations... But even though the remaining three S&P constituents (i.e. OMC, GPC and BF.B) out with results posted better than expected earnings, investors were more focused on the negative news related to issues like inflation and interest rates as this is the final week of significant earnings reports...NYSE Adv/Dec 731/2643...NASDAQ Adv/Dec 875/2304.

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Today's Picks - February 23, 2005

1.   FST - Forest Oil

Entry Date	Exit Date	Position	Entry Price	Target Price	Stop Price	Max P/L
02-23		Long	Above 15 high	Sell 1/2 once risk covered	Below LOD at time of setup
	* Please Note: If the stock gaps down at the open do not enter the trade unless it trades above 38.38

2.   KSE - Keyspan Corp

Entry Date	Exit Date	Position	Entry Price	Target Price	Stop Price	Max P/L
02-23		Long	Above 15 high	Sell 1/2 once risk covered	Below LOD at time of setup
	* Please Note: If the stock gaps down at the open do not enter the trade unless it trades above 39.05

3.   NEW - New Century

Entry Date	Exit Date	Position	Entry Price	Target Price	Stop Price	Max P/L
02-23		Long	Above 15 high	Sell 1/2 once risk covered	Below LOD at time of setup
	* Please Note: If the stock gaps down at the open do not enter the trade unless it trades above 49.04

4.   TXU - Txu Corp

Entry Date	Exit Date	Position	Entry Price	Target Price	Stop Price	Max P/L
02-23		Short	Below 15 min low	Cover 1/2 once risk covered	Above HOD at time of setup
	* Please Note: If the stock gaps up at the open do not enter the trade unless it trades below 74.05

5.   HUM - Humana

Entry Date	Exit Date	Position	Entry Price	Target Price	Stop Price	Max P/L
02-23		Short	Below 15 min low	Cover 1/2 once risk covered	Above HOD at time of setup
	* Please Note: If the stock gaps up at the open do not enter the trade unless it trades below 31.66

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EOD = End of day.
LOD = Low of day.
PDC = Previous Day's Close.
S/R = Support/Resistance.
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