Earnings Motivation
Strong earnings from Yahoo! and big merger announcements have stocks heading
north in Wednesday trading as traders begin to look toward Friday’s inflation
numbers.
The Nasdaq futures are up 67.50 points, and the Dow futures are up 55 points.
The S&Ps look to open 10 points higher while the yield on the 10-year
Treasury note has edged up to 6.08%.
This Morning
Abbott Laboratories
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PowerRating) met First Call/Thomson Financial earnings
estimates of 44 cents per share for the company’s fiscal second quarter. Abbott
Labs closed Tuesday unchanged at 43.
Also strong in the drug sector is drug developer Protein Design Labs
(
PDLI |
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PowerRating),
which announced a 2-for-1 stock split after the bell on Tuesday. Protein Design
Labs closed Tuesday at 186 3/4 and is trading up to 194 1/2 in pre-market
activity.
Internet stocks are rallying on the strong earnings news from Yahoo! Among
pre-market gainers are eBay
(
EBAY |
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PowerRating), up 3 1/16 to 47, and Lycos
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PowerRating),
up 3 to 44 5/8.
Last Night
Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
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PowerRating) announced better-than-expected earnings of 12 cents per
share, beating First Call/Thomson Financial estimates of 10 cents per share.
Yahoo! closed Tuesday at 105 9/16 and is trading up to 119 7/8 in pre-market
activity.
Paine Webber
(
PWJ |
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PowerRating) received a $12 billion cash and stock buyout offer
from Swiss banking giant UBS. The offer translates to $73.50 per share. Paine
Webber closed Tuesday up 3 13/16 to 49 15/16 and is set to open sharply higher
in Wednesday trading.