All Eyes On IBM…Here’s What To Expect

Stocks are
higher on a mix of economic data.

Business inventory rose less than expected at 0.4% with PPI that fell
unexpectedly by 0.3%. Initial claims edged up 40K to 349K with capacity
utilization falling to 77.2%. Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings fell to
$1.14 billion after a $5 billion legal charge. Excluding one-time charges,
earnings rose to $1.02 a share. Total revenue rose 15% to $22.3 billion.

Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings that beat expectations on strong iPod sales with
overall sales up at $2 billion. Earnings rose to $61 million, iPod sales rose to
860,000 units. The company expects earnings of 16 cents for Q4 and revenue of
$2.1 billion.
Sandisk
(
SNDK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

reported Q2 sales that rose 85% to $433 million with earnings at $71 million.
For Q3, it is seeking revenue of $450 million. Cypress Semiconductor
(
CY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

rose after reporting earnings of $22 million with revenue up 30% to $264.3
million with strength in its wireless terminals.

OPEC cancelled next week’s
scheduled meeting, confident they can implement a quota increases without it.

Martha Stewart is
scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

After the bell, IBM will
report; analysts are looking for $1.12. The company has beaten revenue
expectations for the past seven quarters; margins are expected to be 36.6%.
Analysts are looking for performance in the software division.

Dow +11 10219
S&P 500 +1 1112
Nasdaq +8 1923

Strong today are: Disk
Drives

(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+4.12%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.73%,
Oil Services

(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.47%, Transport
(
$TRAN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.29%.

Weak today are: Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.63%, Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.46%.

Economic news release include
Business Inventories that rose by 0.4%, Initial Claims that rose to 349K, NY
Empire State Index rose to 36.5. PPI prices fell by 0.3% and Core PPI rose by
0.2$. Industrial Production fell by 0.3% with Capacity Utilization also falling
to 77.2%

10-year Notes are -025
at 110 105

The dollar
is +0.19 at 87.95

Gold is -0.40 at 406.50

Crude Oil is +0.17 at
40.40

Volume is 660 million on
the NYSE, and 820 million on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1780 Up Vol 304
Declining 1257 Down Vol 303
Ratio 1.42 1.01
Nasdaq
Advancing 1543 Up Vol 543
Declining 1291 Down Vol 215
Ratio 1.20 2.53

Top Dow stocks are:

Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +1.39%,
United Tech

(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.79%, 3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.76%, Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+0.49%,  

Stocks in the news:

Nokia
(
NOK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
warned that
earnings would be below consensus and sales from April – June would be around
$8.20 billion.

Harrah’s
(
HET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said they would purchase Caesar’s
Entertainment

(
CZR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
for $5.2 billion in a stock and cash deal; it would
create the world’s largest casino operator.

Fairchild Semiconductor
(
FCS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after posting
earnings of $17 million with revenue rising 19% to $414.3 million, which missed
estimates.

QLogic
(
QLGC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a profit of $32.2 million
on revenue of $129.8 million. Both numbers were either inline or beat the
consensus.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com