Green Open
Stocks have little to react to Friday morning since no major economic
news is due out, but the futures are indicating a slightly positive open.
The Nasdaq futures are up 21.50 points, and the Dow futures are up 15 points.
The S&Ps look to open 1.80 points higher while the yield on the 10-year Treasury
note has edged up to 6.12%.
This Morning
Rambus
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PowerRating) announced Thursday that it had reached a legal settlement
with Hitachi, and that sent Rambus soaring in after hours trading. After closing
at 97 3/16 on Thursday Rambus is trading up to 137 1/2 in pre-market activity.
In the biotech and genome arena, Human Genome Sciences
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PowerRating) is up
sharply after announcing new clinical trials on a protein that can help the
immune system. HGSI closed Thursday at 132 11/16 and is trading up to 151 in
pre-market activity.
Qualcomm
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PowerRating) traded as high as 73 7/8 on Thursday before finishing
the day up 3 3/4 to 68 1/4. Apparently, widely circulated talk of a possible
takeover of Qualcomm by Nokia
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PowerRating) had fueled the move in Qualcomm. Qualcomm is trading up 1/4
to 68 1/2 in pre-market activity.
Last Night
Memory chip maker Micron
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MU |
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PowerRating) posted third quarter earnings of 47 cents
per share, beating the First Call/Thomson Financial estimate of 34 cents per
share. Micron closed Thursday down 3 7/8 to 86 7/8.
Darden Restaurants
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DRI |
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PowerRating), the parent company of Red Lobster and Olive
Garden, posted fiscal fourth quarter earnings of 43 cents per diluted share,
topping First Call/Thomson Financial estimates of 40 cents per share. The figure
also improved upon the same year-ago earnings of 33 cents per share. Darden
closed Thursday up 2 5/16 to 18.