Cisco’s Earnings
Stocks bounced back from their lowest levels of the year
with the Nasdaq eking out a 1.89% gain.
Oil prices climbed back above $40 despite Saudi Arabia’s call for a rise in
OPEC’s output to relieve tight inventory levels. Sales of three-year Treasury
notes worth $24 billion showed great demand, drawing bids for twice the offer
amount and yielding 3.199%. NY State AG Eliot
Spitzer subpoenaed Putnam Investments on rebates awarded to select clients.
According to Putnam, the practice of fee reimbursement is widespread across the
industry.
Cisco
(
CSCO |
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PowerRating) beat
earnings by a penny at 19 cents a share with revenue ahead of consensus up 22%
at $5.62 billion. Gross margins rose by 0.3% to 68.5%. Chip-maker Intel
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PowerRating)
announced three new laptop processors dubbed Pentium M 735, 745 and 755 that run
at higher speeds without significantly sacrificing battery life.
Procter & Gamble
(
PG |
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PowerRating) purchased a remaining stake in its China joint venture from Hutchison
Whampoa
for $1.8 billion. The transaction will
have minimal impact on its June quarter.
Walt Disney
(
DIS |
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PowerRating)
received an upgrade from UBS citing valuation concerns and better growth
expectations. Banc of America Securities said Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
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PowerRating) was
undervalued and upgraded it to “buy,” raising its price target to $65 and noting
that 44% of Merrill’s revenue and 30% of its pre-tax earnings came from its
retail operations in 2003. Faster growth is expected over the next 18-24 months.
With crude trading at record levels, oil giant ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
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PowerRating) was
upgraded by AG Edwards.
| Dow | +29.45 |
10019.47 |
| S&P 500 |
+8.37 | 1095.49 |
| Nasdaq | +35.28 |
1931.35 |
Strong today were Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.49%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.45%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.43%, and Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.38%.
Weak today were Utility
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.33%, and Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
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PowerRating) -0.25%.
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes were +40
at 108 220
The dollar
was +0.09 at 91.84
Gold was +1.20 at 378.40
Crude Oil was +1.30 at
401.00
Volume was 1,525 million
on the NYSE, and 1,623 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
2701 | Up Vol 1197 |
| Declining | 652 | Down Vol 304 |
| Ratio | 4.14 | 3.94 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
2269 | Up Vol 1405 |
| Declining |
924 | Down Vol 207 |
| Ratio | 2.46 | 6.79 |
Stocks in the news:
Linktone
(
LTON |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after surprising analysts
with earnings of $2.8 million — up from $100,000 a year ago. Revenue rose 440%
to $9.4 million on strong demand for the company’s short messaging services (SMS)
products and services. For the second quarter, the company expects revenue and
income growth of at least 20%.
Mylan Laboratories
(
MYL |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of $74.9
million on revenue of $333.4 million. The company reported a 34% drop in brand
segment revenue and forecasted 2005 earnings of $1.30 a share.
Symbol Technologies
(
SBL |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of $6.8
million on revenue of $420 million on strength in its mobile computing and
wireless products.
Toyota Motors
(
TM |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported operating profits of
$14.68 billion on sales of $153.26 billion. US sales rose 6.1% to 2.1 million
vehicles and European sales rose 15.8 % to 898,000 vehicles.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com