Look For Earnings From These 2 Companies After The Bell
Stocks
are rebounding on light volume with traders wary of oil prices and worldwide
violence. India’s Sonia Gandhi decided to drop out of the race to
become India’s Prime Minister, hoping to end the controversy over her foreign
birth. Asian stocks got a boost after indices declined as much as 11% on Monday.
AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a 5-year deal with Sprint
(
FON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), enabling
Sprint to sell cell phone services under its own brand.
Agilent
(
A |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted a profit of $104 million compared with a loss of $146 a year-earlier with
revenue up 25% to $1.83 billion. For the third-quarter, earnings are expected to
reach 0.25/share on revenue of $1.80 billion.
Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that rose to $1.1 billion on revenue of
$17.55 billion with same-store sales up 7.7%. The company also raised 2004
earnings forecast with an expected 12% EPS growth rate. JC Penny
(
JCP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $41 million after charges; sales rose 8.7% to $4.03 billion
with same-store sales up 9.5%. The average person spends $55.11 per trip at Home
Depot.
The average price for a gallon
of gas is now over $2.00, with California the highest at $2.27. In the Midwest,
the average is $2.00; the Northeast, $2.03, and the Gulf Coast, $1.89. On an
inflation-adjusted basis, 1980 prices were almost double the current level.
After the bell,
Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is expected to report EPS of 34 cents on revenue
of $19.3 billion; Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will also report after
the close, with the consensus at 0.19.
| Dow | +75.58 | 9983.54 |
| S&P 500 | +9.55 | 1093.68 |
| Nasdaq | +25.10 | 1901.71 |
Strong today are Retail
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.68%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.35%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.20%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.18%.
Weak today are Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.97% and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.61%
Economic news releases today:
housing starts that fell below expectations at 1969K, and stronger-than-expected
building permits at 1999K
10-year Notes are -85 at
109 080
The dollar
is +0.08 at 91.24
Gold is -2.30 at 377.30
Crude Oil is -0.71 at
40.78
Volume is 611,000
million on the NYSE, and 677,000 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2248 | Up Vol 438 |
| Declining | 907 | Down Vol 152 |
| Ratio | 2.48 | 2.88 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1913 | Up Vol 530 |
| Declining | 1037 | Down Vol 102 |
| Ratio | 1.85 | 5.19 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+3.64% at 34.70, Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.72% at 33.30, Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.03% at 19.80, Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.76% at 27.32, Â
Stocks in the news:
Barnes & Noble
(
BKS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said books
related to politics and war helped it turn a profit of $12.5 million with sales
up at $966 million from $864 million a year ago.
Computer Sciences
(
CSC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted
earnings that rose by 17% to $190.6 million, with revenue up 30% to $4.0
billion. It reported a 65% increase in federal government sales and a 13%
increase in global commercial revenue.
Endo Pharmaceuticals
(
ENDP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it
would wait for an appeals court decision in a patent case before launching its
generic version of the OxyContin painkiller.
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
(
MLNM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after reporting positive results of its phase III Velcade chemotherapy
treatment.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com