AA Sees Double-Digit Profitability; Another Split For TASR
Stocks were
mixed today after a weak opening.
Alcoa’s
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) net income rose
135% compared with a year ago. Income from continuing operations rose 79% and
net income was lower than expected at $0.40 cents a share vs. Wall Street
consensus of $0.42 cents or $355 million. Five of the company’s six segments
showed double-digit increases in profitability year over year.
Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) have expanded their strategic partnership, aiming to cut
costs through standardized technology. Stun-gun maker Taser International
(
TASR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) which has exploded over the last couple of months announced another
stock split, this time 2 for 1. Responding to a news report of 40 deaths
involving stun guns, the company said none of the autopsies listed Taser as the
cause of death. TASR tacked on another 18% today.
New Century’s
(
NCEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
board of directors voted to convert to a real estate investment trust in an
attempt to raise shareholder returns. Standard & Poors placed NCEN on
CreditWatch.
The REIT sector continued
yesterday’s downtrend as traders pocketed the past year’s massive gains.
The world’s largest cellphone
maker Nokia
(
NOK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided the Street lower and now expects to earn 21
cents for the next quarter. Sales fell 2% vs. a previous forecast of a 5%
increase.
Kelloggs
(
K |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said its
first-quarter profits will be 30% higher as a result of strong sales growth and
better currency exchange. It now forecasts earnings of 52 cents a share.
Midway Games
(
MWY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after the company said it expects higher revenue
of $18 million for the quarter, and a smaller loss than initially anticipated on
stronger-than-expected sales of The Suffering video game.
| Dow | +12.44 |
10570.81 |
| S&P 500 |
-2.40 | 1148.17 |
| Nasdaq | -19.22 |
2059.90 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.13%, Transport
(
$TRANX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.82%,
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.63% and Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.29%.
Weak today are REITs
(
DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-4.09%, and Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.58%
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes are +125
at 112 255
The dollar
is -0.50 at 89.08
Gold is unch at 418.90
Crude Oil is +0.07 at
34.45
Volume is 1,392,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,798,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1201 | Up Vol 535 |
| Declining | 2089 | Down Vo 843 |
| Ratio | 2.10 | 2.50 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1051 | Up Vol 545 |
| Declining |
2129 | Down Vol 1194 |
| Ratio | 2.49 | 2.44 |
Stocks in the news:
Cummins
(
CMI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after upping
its first-quarter and full-year earnings outlook on strong demand for its
engines. The company now expects 70 cents for the first quarter with full-year
earnings at $4.20 a share.
Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded to
underweight by JP Morgan due to its relationship with Nokia and the high level
of estimates given.
Omnicell
(
OMCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will miss previous first-quarter
earnings forecasts and expects to earn 7 cents on sales of $27.5 million.
Tupperware
(
TUP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its first-quarter earnings
outlook on reduced costs. It now expects to earn 22 cents with sales rising to
high single-digit levels.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com