CSCO Trading At This Key Level After The News

August 6, 2003
Vincent Mao

Stocks are
mixed this midday.Â Both the Dow and S&P
are modestly in the green after some earlier weakness. Meanwhile the Nasdaq is
modestly lower but well off session lows. The Nasdaq has fallen below its widely
watched 50-day moving average — it has not been below the key average since
mid-March. There was no economic news today as corporate news took center stage.
Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in the spotlight as the company delivered in line
fourth-quarter results. However, tech stocks came under pressure as investors
were looking for a more stellar report from the networking giant. The stock is
recovering near its 50-day moving average after falling more than 6%.

In economic news today,
tomorrow we will have weekly jobless claims, productivity, wholesale
inventories, and consumer credit.Â

The 10-year U.S. Note
is +270 at 111 220.

The dollar is -0.12 at
96.25.

Gold is +1.40 at 352.60.

Crude Oil -0.47 at
31.77.

Volume is 764,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,000,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is mixed,
with NYSE declining issues over advancing issues by 1.14, and up volume over
down volume by 1.20. Nasdaq declining issues over advancing issues at 1.64, and
down volume over up volume at 2.53.

Top Dow stocks are:

Stocks in the news:

Online billing service provider
CheckFree
(
CKFR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by more than 16% after its latest
quarterly results. For its fourth quarter, the company reported a loss of 19
cents a share compared to a loss of 67 cents a share in the year-ago period.
Revenues rose 13% to $144.6 million. Excluding items, the company earned 22
cents a share or a penny below estimates. Looking ahead, the company sees
first-quarter results between 18 to 20 cents compared to consensus estimates of
22 cents a share.Â

Networking giant Cisco
Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by 6.7% despite reporting fourth-quarter
results excluding items in line with estimates. The company reported
fourth-quarter results of 14 cents a share on revenues of $4.7 billion compared
to 10 cents a share on revenues of $4.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Excluding one-time charges, the company earned 15 cents a share, matching
analysts’ estimates. During the company’s conference call, CEO John Chambers did
suggest improving business conditions.Â Â

Drugmaker ICOS
(
ICOS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is lower by 16% after the company reported a narrower-than-expected
second-quarter loss, but sees losses widening in 2004. In its latest quarter,
the company reported a loss of 19 cents a share compared to a loss of 66 cents a
share in the year-ago period. This was better than analysts’ expectations of a
loss of 41 cents a share. ICOS’s better-than-expected loss could be attributed
to a one-time gain from the termination of an agreement with Biogen
(
BGEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Looking ahead, the company is expecting to lose approximately $3 a share due to
the launch of a new anti-impotence drug. Wall Street had been expecting a loss
of $1.23 a share.Â Â

Fast food giant Jack in the
Box
(
JBX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by 1.8% after the company reported its latest
quarterly results. For its fiscal third quarter, the company earned 54 cents a
share or a nickel better than analysts’ consensus estimates. However the results
were below last year’s levels of 60 cents a share.Â

Software giant Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is fractionally higher despite being faced with a possible fine from
the European Union. The EU is seeking to fine Microsoft for abusing its dominant
position. Much of the charges could be attributed to the software giant’s
bundling of its Windows Media Player with its Windows operating system.Â

Online health information
provider WebMD
(
HLTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is lower by 6.8% after the company reported
that losses widened in its latest quarter. The company reported a second-quarter
loss of 9 cents a share compared to a loss of 7 cents a share in the year-ago
quarter. Excluding charges and items, the company would have earned 11 cents a
share or a penny above estimates.Â

Â If you have any comments or
questions, please feel free to email me.

Vincent Mao

vincentm@tradingmarkets.com

CSCO Trading At This Key Level After The News

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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