AA Sees Double-Digit Profitability; Another Split For TASR

Stocks were
mixed today after a weak opening.

Alcoa’s
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net income rose
135% compared with a year ago. Income from continuing operations rose 79% and
net income was lower than expected at $0.40 cents a share vs. Wall Street
consensus of $0.42 cents or $355 million. Five of the company’s six segments
showed double-digit increases in profitability year over year.

Dell
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and
Oracle

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have expanded their strategic partnership, aiming to cut
costs through standardized technology. Stun-gun maker Taser International
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which has exploded over the last couple of months announced another
stock split, this time 2 for 1. Responding to a news report of 40 deaths
involving stun guns, the company said none of the autopsies listed Taser as the
cause of death. TASR tacked on another 18% today.

New Century’s
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board of directors voted to convert to a real estate investment trust in an
attempt to raise shareholder returns. Standard & Poors placed NCEN on
CreditWatch.

The REIT sector continued
yesterday’s downtrend as traders pocketed the past year’s massive gains.

The world’s largest cellphone
maker Nokia
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guided the Street lower and now expects to earn 21
cents for the next quarter. Sales fell 2% vs. a previous forecast of a 5%
increase.

Kelloggs
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said its
first-quarter profits will be 30% higher as a result of strong sales growth and
better currency exchange. It now forecasts earnings of 52 cents a share.
Midway Games

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rose after the company said it expects higher revenue
of $18 million for the quarter, and a smaller loss than initially anticipated on
stronger-than-expected sales of The Suffering video game.

Dow
+12.44

10570.81
S&P 500
-2.40
1148.17
Nasdaq
-19.22

2059.90

The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines

(
XAL.X |
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+1.13%, Transport
(
$TRANX |
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+0.82%,
Gold and Silver

(
XAU.X |
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+0.63% and Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
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+0.29%.

Weak today are REITs
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DJR.X |
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-4.09%, and Hardware
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HWI.X |
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-2.58%

No Economic news releases
today.

10-year Notes are +125
at 112 255

The dollar
is -0.50 at 89.08

Gold is unch at 418.90

Crude Oil is +0.07 at
34.45

Volume is 1,392,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,798,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
1201 Up Vol 535
Declining 2089 Down Vo 843
Ratio 2.10 2.50
Nasdaq
Advancing
1051 Up Vol 545
Declining
2129 Down Vol 1194
Ratio 2.49 2.44

Stocks in the news:

Cummins
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rose after upping
its first-quarter and full-year earnings outlook on strong demand for its
engines. The company now expects 70 cents for the first quarter with full-year
earnings at $4.20 a share.

Texas Instruments
(
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was downgraded to
underweight by JP Morgan due to its relationship with Nokia and the high level
of estimates given.

Omnicell
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OMCL |
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will miss previous first-quarter
earnings forecasts and expects to earn 7 cents on sales of $27.5 million.

Tupperware
(
TUP |
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raised its first-quarter earnings
outlook on reduced costs. It now expects to earn 22 cents with sales rising to
high single-digit levels.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com