High Noon For Earnings
Following Nasdaq’s respectable 1.9% Tuesday showing, stocks are looking
cautiously sluggish Wednesday as traders’ eyes shift from Fed-watch mode to
earnings-watch mode.
The Nasdaq futures are down 33.50 points, and the Dow futures are off 25
points.
The S&Ps look to open down 5.80 points while the yield on the 10-year
Treasury is holding steady at 5.01%.
Earnings season picks up pace after the close Wednesday with announcements
expected from high-profilers Motorola
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Wednesday Movers
Software maker BEA Systems
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kind words from a Dain Rauscher Wessels analyst late Tuesday. BEAS closed
Tuesday up 2 5/8 to 49 1/8 and is currently trading up to 50 1/2 in pre-market
activity.
Telecom has stood out so far this year as one of the top sectors with a 11%
year-to-date gain for the telecom index
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PowerRating). One of the standouts
has been WorldCom
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perched at the top of a two-month base. WorldCom is currently trading down
slightly to 19 1/2 in pre-market activity.
Microsoft
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1/4 and closed Tuesday up 2 7/8 to 51 13/16. Microsoft settled an ongoing
lawsuit with Priceline
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New Year’s theme for the company. Microsoft is currently trading down slightly
to 51 in pre-market activity.
Nokia’s revenue slide is affecting the rest of the wireless world, and
Qualcomm
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1/4 and is looking at an open down to 69, which would be a new 2-month low.