Apple Reports After The Close. Here’s The Whisper Number

Stocks are lower on a disappointing retail sales
report. March retail sales rose 0.3%, less than expected. Ex-auto,
+0.1%.The EIA said crude inventories rose +3.6 million barrels;  gas
inventories rose +0.8 million barrels.

Two key investment bankers–Joseph Perella and Terry Meguid–are leaving
Morgan Stanley
(
MWD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). No clues yet as to who else might be leaving with
them.

Harley Davidson
(
HDI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that beat expectations but
guided lower. The company now sees net growth of 5 – 8%.

McDonalds’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised Q1 guidance and now sees 0.56; same store
sales rose 6.8%.

Imclone
(
IMCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) pushed back its Erbitux approval filing and now
says it will seek approval by the end of the year. Fulcrum, Oppenheimer and CSFB
all downgraded the stock.

The FDA denied Inamed’s
(
IMDC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) application to return silicon
breast implants to the US market.

Here are some earnings highlights for the remainder of the week (including
estimates):

Wednesday

Advanced Micro Devices
(
AMD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.02; whisper 0.03

Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.24; whisper 0.28

Thursday

Southwest
(
LUV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.05

Sun Micro
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.00

Pepsi
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.51

Friday

Citigroup [C|C]  1.02 

General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.37

Strong sectors are:  Drugs
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.37%  
Healthcare Providers
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.66%  

Weak sectors are:   Semis
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.68%   
Transports
(
$TRANX.X$ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.40%   Chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.36%    

Stocks in the News

Prudential raised Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell.’ The
stock made a multi-year low  yesterday.

Slumberger
(
SLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was raised to ‘outperform’ at Wachovia.

Biogen
(
BIIB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) a Tysabri trial was successful; the drug is still
off the market.

Computer Associates
(
CA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) doubled its dividend and authorized a $400
million stock buyback.

Murphy Oil
(
MUR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided lower for Q1. The company now sees 1.10
-1.15 vs the 1.34 expectation.