Another High-Profile IPO On Tap
Stocks are
mixed Wednesday after a strong opening.
Alan Greenspan said the Fed would take a measured approach in raising interest
rates and said outsourcing would increase further and benefit U.S. living
standards. Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced plans to pay a special
one-time $3 dividend and buy back as much as $30 billion of its stock over the
next 4 years. MSFT also upped the annual dividend to 32 cents a share.
Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of 54 cents with sales at $3.469
billion. EK raised FY operating earnings forecast to about $2.54 a share.
GM
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of $1.34 billion with sales at $49.15 billion. Just
like Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), GM’s financing unit contributed to the majority of the
auto-maker’s earnings; further showing the fierce competition of the auto
industry. GM said its global market share fell 0.2% to 14.9% from a year ago. It
still expects FY earnings of $7 a share. Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat earnings by 4 cents at $361 million with revenue up 11% at $6.39
billion. The company raised FY EPS to $1.65 a share citing strong demand in all
of its units.
Dreamworks is planning
an IPO of its animation unit, which is responsible for films such as “Shrek 2.”
Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters.
| Dow | +37.93 | 10186.89 |
| S&P 500 | +0.04 | 1108.93 |
| Nasdaq | -10.54 | 1906.10 |
Strong today are: Oil
Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.37%, Telecoms
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.79%,Â
Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.65%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.36%.
Weak today are: BiotechsÂ
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.50%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.03%
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes are -120
at 110 065
The dollar
is +0.87 at 88.83
Gold is -6.40 at 395.70
Crude Oil is +0.46 at
40.90
Volume is 800 million on
the NYSE, and 999 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1096 | Up Vol 321 |
| Declining | 2034 | Down Vol 455 |
| Ratio | 1.86 | 1.24 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1032 | Up Vol 379 |
| Declining | 1889 | Down Vol 588 |
| Ratio | 1.83 | 31.55 |
Top Dow stocks are:
United Tech
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+0.29%, Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.79%, JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.00%, Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.92%
Stocks in the news:
JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of $1.81
billion (excluding one-time charges) on revenue of $4.4 billion.
Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of $1.77 billion with
sales rising 9% to $6 billion. The company affirmed previous earnings forecasts
of $3.14 a share for FY 2004.
Colgate-Palmolive
(
CL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was lower after reporting
earnings of $373.9 million on sales of $2.572 billion.
BJ Services
(
BJS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a profit of $129.3
million a increased land drilling in US and Mexico. Revenue was up 21% to $658.7
million.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com