Here’s What Happened At Several Analyst Meetings Today
Stocks were lower as buyers stepped back;
this, in spite of lower oil prices–the lowest in three months. Traders are
asking the question: Is the Santa Claus rally winded?
Guidant
(
GDT |
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PowerRating) is reportedly in talks to be acquired by Johnson
& Johnson
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PowerRating) for $24 billion. Colgate
(
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PowerRating) will cut 12% of
its work force, close 1/3 of its factories and take $650 million in charges.
China’s largest PC maker, Lenovo, is close to acquiring IBM’s PC business
for $2 billion.Advanced Micro Devices
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PowerRating) was lowered at
Deutshe Bank to ‘hold’ from ‘buy.’
Lehman downgraded several airline stocks,
including CAL JBLU and NWAC.
In analyst meetings
today: Intel‘s Craig Barrett said that the company has "recovered from
missteps" that led to product delays, cancellations and slowing sales growth, Cisco
did not address growth prospects for the current quarter and Hewlett Packard
refused to discuss 2005 sales forecasts.
M&A deals for 2004 are running at about the same
pace as 2003, but the value is larger. In 2003, there were 7600 deals worth $538
billion; for 2003, there have been 7408 deals worth $673 billion. IPOs
expanded this year. In 2003, there were 85 IPOs worth $15.8 billion; in 2004
there were 219 IPOs worth $42.3 billion.
Biogen Idec
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PowerRating)
said that their drug Zevalin appeared to be effective against the most common
type of Lymphoma.
Weak sectors were: Drugs
(
DRG.X |
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PowerRating) -0.56%, Brokers
(
XBD.X |
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PowerRating)
-0.58%
| Dow | 106.48 | 10440.58 |
| S&P 500 | -13.18 | 1177.07 |
| Nasdaq | -36.60 | 2114.65 |
The dollar was -0.02 at
81.27
Gold was -1.80 to 455.50
Crude Oil was -1.48 at 41.46
2.6 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 772 | Up Vol 256 |
| Declining | 2541 | Down Vol 1246 |
| Ratio | 3.29 | 4.86 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 794 | Up Vol 886 |
| Declining | 2367 | Down Vol 1700 |
| Ratio | 2.98 | 1.91 |
Stocks in the News.
Comtech Telecom
(
CMTL |
Quote |
Chart |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.14.
Brice Wightman