Like Dividends? This Company Raised Theirs By 25%
Stocks are higher on better earnings and guidance.
The market gapped up and had a strong first hour rally, to bring the
Dow up triple digits. Chinese GDP for last
quarter was much stronger than expected at 9.5%, a big relief to commodities
companies–steel and metals in particular. AKS and X both reported excellent
earnings.
Merck
(
MRK |
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PowerRating) was inline at 0.50 and beat on revenues. The company
said it had $604 million in reserves for Vioxx lawsuits.
DuPont
(
DD |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.04, pro-forma. Q4 net income fell, however.
Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.08.
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.04.
EMC Corp
(
EMC |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.04. Year over year revenue rose 27%.
Consumer Confidence rose unexpectedly in January, to 103 from 102.74
in December.
The price of a NYSE seat rose above $1 million yesterday; this, after making
a nine-year low several weeks ago.
After the close, look for earnings from Computer Associates
(
CA |
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PowerRating),
Electronic Arts
(
ARTS |
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PowerRating) Kraft
(
KFT |
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PowerRating) and Texas
Instruments
(
TXN |
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Chart |
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PowerRating)
The Iraq elections are on Sunday, and OPEC meets then as well. Next week,
look for the FOMC.
Strong sectors are: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +5.41%, Semis Â
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.54%,
Drugs
(
DRG.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.28%
Weak sectors are: Gold
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.44%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.89%.
| Dow | +115.94 | 10,484.55 |
| S&P 500 | +7.86 | 1171.61 |
| Nasdaq | +16.56 | 2025.26 |
The dollar is +0.78 at
84.02
Crude Oil is -0.31 at
48.50
Gold is -4.80 to 422
978 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1797 | Up Vol 1622 |
| Declining | 1365 | Down Vol 1291 |
| 1.31 | 1.25 | |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 443 | Up Vol 710 |
| Declining | 238 | Down Vol 207 |
| 1.86 | 3.42 |
Stocks in the News
Coach
(
COH |
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PowerRating) guided higher and announced a 2:1 stock split
scheduled for April
Xerox
(
XRX |
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PowerRating) said its profits rose 15%, helped by good printer
demand.
Altera
(
ALTR |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.02; revenues rose 28%.
Cognex (CGNX)
beat by 0.03 but issued downside guidance.
JDA Software (JDAS)
beat by 0.08 and beat on revenues.
Lehman Brothers
(
LEH |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its quarterly dividend by 25%.
Silicon Labs (SLAB)
beat by 0.04. Â Piper Jaffray upgraded the stock on valuation.
Netflix (NFLX)
beat by 0.04. Fourth quarter revenue and income more than doubled from a year
ago.
This Day in History
1959Â First scheduled transatlantic flight of a Boeing 707
Brice Wightman
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