Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks Features Symbol Technologies, Visteon, General Motors, XTO Energy, and YUM! Brands

Business Wire, July 14, 2005

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the July 14 edition of Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks are Symbol Technologies (NYSE:SBL), Visteon (NYSE:VC), General Motors (NYSE:GM), XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO), and YUM! Brands (NYSE:YUM). 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 Thursday, July 14, 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 - 1,226.14) 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.

Although the SPX has dropped back from its intraday high, it still is perched above short-term resistance at the 1,225 level. The SPX is relying on the support of this former level of resistance in order to hold on to the impressive gains made this week. The index's intraday high of 1,233.16, hit in the opening minutes of trade, sets a new four-year record.

Symbol Technologies (NYSE:SBL) has gained more than nine percent today after making an appearance on Jim Cramer's CNBC show, Mad Money. The screaming sultan of stocks gave SBL the bullish light, stating that investors should purchase the stock. The reason for the green light is Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertloff's announcement that the department plans to spend a lot of money on technology that will help protect the United States. Apparently Cramer believes that SBL's radio-frequency identification technology will be a hot commodity.

Similar kind words have helped propel Visteon (NYSE:VC) to the second spot on the hot stocks list today. Lehman Brothers decided to raise its view of the entire auto and auto parts sector to "neutral" from "negative." In the upgrade announcement, the brokerage also upgraded VC to "overweight" from its earlier "underweight" rating, while raising its price target to $10. VC joins SBL in the greater-than-nine-percent-advance club today. In the same upgrade, Lehman Brothers noted that any type of restructuring announcement at General Motors (NYSE:GM) has the potential to make a profound impact with investors.

Is it any surprise to see Apple Computer (AAPL) or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on the hot stocks list today? AMD reported second-quarter earnings of three cents per share, better than the loss of six cents per share that the Street had been expecting. After that post-close surprise, AAPL decided to issue quarterly earnings of 37 cents per share, beating the consensus estimate by six cents per share. AAPL's strong gains were driven by an increase of 616 percent in iPod sales during the past year.

Looking at the 20 stocks at the bottom of our list this afternoon, it certainly appears that oil giveth, and it taketh away. A lack of hurricane damage to production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico has given investors reason to breathe a sigh of relief today, as far as oil supplies go. Crude has dropped $2.16 per barrel to $57.85 per barrel this afternoon. What's more, it appears that the latest hurricane, Emily, is poised to miss the Gulf and spare damage to any of the oil production facilities. With this sizeable drop in Black Gold, 15 of the stocks on the down side are oil equities. The largest loser on the day is XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) followed by Valero (VLO).

The first non-oil company that is on the negative side of the hot stocks list today is YUM! Brands (NYSE:YUM), which reported earnings that were anything but yummy. While the purveyor of pizza, chicken, and anything-but-authentic Mexican fast food (at its Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell restaurants) beat the Street's estimate by five cents per share, it has lost more than four percent in trading today. Analysts expected YUM to report earnings of 57 cents per share, which were beaten by earnings of 62 cents per share, but YUM's earnings included a gain of four cents per share by an initial public offering of its Poland/Czech Republic franchises. An additional three cents per share were gained by an unusually low tax rate. My University of Cincinnati math tells me that YUM would have earned 55 cents per share for the quarter, shy of the Street's estimate. To add to the misery, YUM forecast earnings of 70 cents per share in the third quarter and 77 cents per share for the fourth quarter. Both of these forecasts are short of the consensus estimate.

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Gainers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=13629 .