Another Bombshell For Taser?

November 17, 2004
Brice Wightman

Stocks were higher on a mega
merger,
although a late day spike in oil sent the market
off its best levels.

Sears
(
S |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and KMart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are merging! The $11 billion
deal will create a combined company called Sears Holdings, which will be the #3
US retailer (behind Wal-Mart and Target), expected to generate
$55 billion in annual revenues.
Kmart stockholders will receive one share of new Sears Holdings common stock for
each Kmart share. Sears shareholders can choose between $50 in cash or 0.5 of a
share of Sears Holdings for each Sears share. The merger is expected to close in
March 2005.

Two weeks ago, Vornado bought a 4.3% interest in Sears. Martha Stewart Living
(
MSO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is also trading up on the news, as her products will now get exposure
at Sears.

October CPI was +0.6%, more than expected and the
biggest jump since May; ex-food/energy was +0.2%. Based on this data and
yesterday’s PPI, producer prices are rising faster (year/year) than companies
are able to pass on to the consumer, which means that companies may be being
squeezed. Housing starts were 122M to 2.027 million. Capacity utilization is the
highest since May 2001.

Trader talk: Earnings are decelerating, and
post-election euphoria will be gone in January.

Amnesty International is rumored to be ready to
release a report outlining how the use of Taser
(
TASR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) stun guns is
leading to human rights abuses and that it maintains the use of stun guns should
be suspended until their safety can be proven.

The SOX traded right up right to its 200-day
moving average.

The EIA said oil inventories rose 800,000
barrels, distillates fell 1 million barrels; gasoline stocks fell 400K barrels.

Hewlett Packard
(HPQ)
beat by 0.04 and beat on revenues. The company said profits rose 27%.

Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said handset sales will grow faster in 2005. The
company lost market share in Q3.

The Mortgage Banker’s Association said that new loan
applications rose 10.6% last week. 30-year mortgages averaged 5.70%.

You knew it was too good to be true. TiVo
(
TIVO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will begin adding pop up ads to their service beginning in March.

American Airlines is removing pillows from all its planes; the move is
expected to save time and money.

After the bell,

Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reports after the close. Estimates are
0.26.

On this day in history:

1869 Suez Canal opened

1913 Panama Canal opened

1973 Nixon told reporters “I’m not a crook”

1993 The House approved NAFTA

Dow	+61.92	10549.57
S&P 500	+6.51	1181.94
Nasdaq	+21.06	2099.68

The dollar was -0.49 at 83.31

Gold was +5.00 at 444.50

Crude Oil was +0.87 at 47.07

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.68 billion on the NYSE and
2.2 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE	Issues
Advancing	2208	Up Vol 1144
Declining	1110	Down Vol 411
Ratio	1.98	2.78
Nasdaq
Advancing	1999	Up Vol 1549
Declining	1141	Down Vol 492
Ratio	1.75	3.14

Stocks in the News

Network Appliance
(NTAP)
beat by 0.02 but was light on revenues.

Google (GOOG)
had 39.1 million shares unlocked and available for sale yesterday. The lockup
expiration more than doubles the shares available to trade. Over the next three
months, 277 million more shares will become eligible to trade.

SBC Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) inked a $400 million deal with Microsoft for next generation TV services.

Brice Wightman

Another Bombshell For Taser?

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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