Here’s What May Take A Bite Out Of Corporate Earnings This Quarter

Stocks
are lower on news of higher energy costs.
Oil
prices jumped to an 11-month high on Friday with US Crude
(
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retreating
from Thursday’s $36 per barrel. BEA Systems
(
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reported higher
revenue and income, both up 12%. Revenue came in at $278.1 million with net
income at $39.3 million. BEAS expects next-quarter revenue to be about $265
million. According to the National Police Agency, Japan tightened security at
650 vital facilities around the country on possible terrorist attacks. The
dollar rose vs. the yen
(
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to $108.75 on the news.

Razor-maker Gillette
(
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was upgraded by
Prudential after the company affirmed its previous annual sales growth target of
4%.

Dow
-48.44

10615.33
S&P 500
-4.22
1142.76
Nasdaq
-15.31

2030.66

The day’s leading sectors are
Oil Services
(
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+0.49%, Oil
(
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+0.13%, and
Energy
(
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+0.09%.

Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs

(
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-3.08%, and Networking
(
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-2.55%,

Economic news releases included
a much higher Consumer Price index, up 0.5%. The CPI index excluding volatile
food and energy prices rose by 0.2%

10-year Notes are -70
at 114 190

The dollar
is +1.21 at 87.25

Gold is -8.90 at 401.14

Crude Oil is -0.43 at
35.57

The euro
is +1.10 at 126.90

Volume is 711,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 990,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 988 Up Vol
137
Declining 2151 Down Vol
552
Ratio 2.31 3.95
Nasdaq
Advancing 959 Up Vol
251
Declining 2043 Dow Vol
711
Ratio 2.20 2.84

Top Dow stocks are:

Microsoft [MSFT|MSFT],
+0.86% at 26.70, Wal-Mart
(
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, +0.71% at 58.81, 3M [MMM|MMM
]
+0.65% at 79.62, and Boeing [BA|BA
],
+0.42% at 44.71.

Stocks in the news:

Broadcom
(
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raised
first-quarter numbers on strong demand for its mobile communications and
broadband and wireless products. BRCM now expects a 17% increase or $560
million in revenue over fourth-quarter levels.

Univision
(
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reported a 62%
increase in profit, $58.9 million on revenue of $408.1 million. The company
expects revenue for the first quarter to increase by high single to low
double-digit percentages with earnings to increase 8 cents.

Cobra Electronics
(
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reported a better quarter with earnings rising 50% to $1.5 million on revenue of
$42.6 million. The lower revenue came from increased competition in the two-way
radio sector. The company didn’t provide specific next-quarter numbers but
cautioned investors that sales will be “slightly less.”


bricew@tradingmarkets.com