Constructive Open
On this 13th anniversary of the Crash of 1987, stocks are headed for a solid
open to the upside Thursday, as a slew of strong earnings from tech bellwethers
like Microsoft and Sun Micro have restored some confidence to the market.
The Dow futures are up 117 points and the Nasdaq futures are up 95 points.
The S&Ps look to open up 18 points while the yield on the 10-year
Treasury is 5.70%.
Morning Movers
Microsoft
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PowerRating) posted strong third quarter earnings of 46 cents per
share, handily beating First Call/Thomson Financial estimates of 41 cents per
share. Microsoft closed Wednesday up 1 5/16 to 51 3/4 and is trading up to 57 in
pre-market activity.
Chip maker Broadcom
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PowerRating) earned 30 cents per share for the third
quarter, which topped analyst estimates of 24 cents per share. Broadcom saw
revenues increase 129% from the same year-ago quarter. The stock closed
Wednesday at 209 7/16 and is trading up to 223 1/8 in pre-market activity.
America Online
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PowerRating) posted third quarter earnings of 14 cents per share,
which was ahead of the 13 cents analysts had expected. An upbeat management also
allayed fears of falling advertising revenues and said final regulatory approval
of the AOL?Time-Warner merger was near. On Wednesday AOL rose 3.31 to 46.91.
Nokia
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PowerRating) announced better-than-expected earnings for its third
quarter, and that has Nokia showing a solid gain on Instinet. After a Wednesday
close of 30, Nokia was trading up to 35 1/2 on Instinet.
Wednesday Follow-up
Handspring
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PowerRating) was one of the day’s big winners, rising 13 11/16 to
91 9/16. The hand-held computer maker is strong in Thursday action as well and
is trading up to 94 in pre-market activity.