-->TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: Acampora Sees Dow 13000 In 2005
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--As the Dow Jones Industrial Average moves toward a 4% gain on the year, 2005 could give last year's 25% advance a run for its money.
Ralph Acampora, chief technical strategist at Prudential Equity Group, says the Dow Jones Industrial Average could reach 13264.54 by the end of 2005. This would be a gain of 2437.42, or nearly 23%, from Thursday's close of 10827.12. The Dow rose 25% in 2003, and is up 3.6% so far this year.
Acampora bases his 2005 upside target on research dating back to the 1960s that measures a series of three distinct moves on the Dow - an upleg, a subsequent correction, and then a second and final upleg - during four cyclical bull moves between 1966 and 1982. He found that the number of points gained in the second and final upleg in each series can equal the distance of the first upleg.
Similarly, Acampora arrives at his 2005 upside target by measuring the moves on the Dow off the Oct. 2002 low. The Dow, for instance, climbed 3,556.14 points, or 49%, from the October 2002 low of 7197.49 to the Feb. 19, 2004, high of 10753.63. He then adds the number of points gained in the first upleg, 3,556, to the lowest point in the corrective leg, which was 9708.40 on Oct. 25, 2004, to arrive at his 2005 upside target of 13,264.54.
Inside the benchmark, aerospace company Boeing Co. (BA) has been among the best performers this year. The shares are up 26% to $53.46, and Acampora said the stock could move as high as $65 or $70 by the end of 2005. It currently trades around $53.
Since March 2003, just before the war in Iraq began, Boeing's stock has been trending higher and has recovered nicely from intermittent sell-offs, Acampora said. Short-term support for the stock should come in around $47 or $48.
Although the shares have been correcting since September, he added, Boeing's long-term trend is still in force and"it's a matter of time before we make a new high."
Boeing hit an historical high of $70.93 in December 2000, and its 52-week high is $55.48 reached Nov. 18.
Another strong performer on the Dow this year to date is Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), which has benefitted from record crude-oil prices. Like Boeing, the stock has gained 26% so far, and it currently trades at $51.50.
Acampora says Exxon's upward bias over the past year points the stock toward a high in the low $60s by the end of 2005, which would be a gain of around 16%. Meantime, support for the shares is nearby at $48 or $49, he said.
Dow Jones Newswires
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