Accounting Issues Hit This Stock Hard
Stocks
are lower on mixed economic news. Retail sales
for January were lower than expected with sales down 0.3% to $322.87 billion.
Excluding auto sales, total sales rose by 0.9%. Healthcare provider Aetna
(
AET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $249.5 million, ahead of analyst
estimates. Revenue fell by 3% to $4.57 billion due to declining membership and
investment returns. The company expects 2004 earnings to reach $6.30 per
share. Sonus Networks
(
SONS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) may need to restate 2003 earnings
because of improperly recorded revenue. Earlier this month, SONS had to delay
its fourth-quarter filings. The stock is down 40% from its peak a month ago and
-18% for the day.
| Dow | -27.03 |
10710.63 |
| S&P 500 |
-2.92 | 1154.63 |
| Nasdaq | -8.05 | 2081.57 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.11%, Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.72%,
Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.04%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.90%,
and Telecoms
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.62%,
Weak today are
Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.79% and Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.78%.
Economic news releases included
Initial Claims rising by 23K to 363K; Retail sales dropping 0.3% (excluding auto
sales, retail sales rose by 0.9%). Business inventories rose by 0.3%, in line
with estimates.
10-year Notes are +15
at 114 230
The dollar
is +0.40 at 85.40
Gold is +2.80 at 413.50
Crude Oil is +0.02 at
33.23
Volume is 719,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,001,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is Negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1424 | Up Vol 356 |
| Declining | 1659 | Down Vol 310 |
| Ratio | 1.14 | 1.12 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1277 | Up Vol 464 |
| Declining | 1686 | Dow Vol 468 |
| Ratio | 1.34 | 1.02 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Disney [DIS|DIS],
+2.42% at 28.28, Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.12% at 36.78, Johnson &
Johnson [JNJ|JNJ],
+0.63% at 54.74, and Wal-Mart [WMT|WMT]
+0.24% at 57.29.
Stocks in the news:
Whole Foods Market
(
WFMI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) experienced
a rosy quarter from the ongoing supermarket strike in Southern California as its
earnings shot up 51% from $25.6 million to $38.7 million on revenue of $1.11
billion.
XM Satellite Radio
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a
net loss of $162.9 million on sales of $33.5 million. Its net subscriber base
rose by 246%.
Brocade Communications
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a net loss of $36.8 million that included various one-time
charges. Excluding such charges, the company earned 3 cents a share, one penny
higher than analysts’ estimates. Revenue rose to $145 million from higher
storage-sector demand. CSFB and First Albany upgraded the stock on the news.
Retailer CVS
(
CVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported net
earnings of $263.4 million on net sales of $7.45 billion. Strong sales of flu
medicine, a reduction in inventory losses and higher gross margins contributed
to the better earnings.