Before The Bell Friday: Blue Chip Earnings Due
Stocks were
lower Thursday with weakness in technology.
Retailers such as ANF, TGT, WMT, GPS reported disappointing sales numbers.
Former Enron CEO Ken Lay was indicted on 17 criminal charges, including fraud
and making false statements; he has denied all wrongdoings. He also made a
conference calls pleading his innocence. Adelphia Communications founder
John Rigas was found guilty of conspiracy. Tim Rigas was found guilty of
securities fraud.
Initial clams dropped
surprisingly to 310,000, almost matching a four-year low. Gold prices rose to a
three-month high as investors pushed prices up 409.60 an ounce. Silver prices
also rose to a 11-wk high to $6.47 an ounce.
Phillip Morris
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reached an agreement with the EU and agreed to pay $1 billion over 12 years to
help in anti-contraband and fraud efforts. Wachovia
(
WB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) signed a
five-year contract with CheckFree
(
CKFR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to utilize their electronic
billing and payment services.
Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported in-line earnings of $113 million but guided lower for the
quarter; the company expects sales of $2.5 billion for the full year.
Second-quarter marketing revenue totaled $691 million, up 215% from a year ago.
Siebel Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned that Q2 would come in below
expectations. Second-quarter revenue will be at about $301 million from
$353 million and operating income at $3 million.
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings that missed by 2 cents with income from continuing operations at $404
million and net income at $759 million. Sales rose to $6.1 billion, the highest
level since 2000. The company’s debt to capital ratio fell to 33.6%.
A Federal judge denied Martha
Stewart’s request for a new trial.
After the close, Yellow
Roadway
(
YELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised guidance, the 2nd upward guidance in three weeks.
YELL and JBHT traded up after hours. Tomorrow before the open, look for earnings
from GE
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) (estimate 0.37) and Abbot
(
ABT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) (estimate
0.54).
| Dow | -68.73 | 10171.56 |
| S&P 500 | -9.23 | 1109.10 |
| Nasdaq | -30.76 | 1935.32 |
Strong today were: Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.82%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.33%,
Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.21%.
Weak today were: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.94%, Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.91%.
Economic news release today
included initial claims that fell to 310,000.
10-year Notes were +20
at 110 155
The dollar
was -0.12 at 87.76
Gold was +5.50 at 409.50
Crude Oil was unch at
40.07
Volume was 650 million
on the NYSE, and 896 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1124 | Up Vol 293 |
| Declining | 2126 | Down Vol 109 |
| Ratio | 1.89 | 2.68 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 721 | Up Vol 335 |
| Declining | 2393 | Down Vol 1430 |
| Ratio | 3.32 | 4.26 |
Stocks in the news:
Nextel
(
NXTL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was awarded a 10 megahertz swath of spectrum in the 1.9Ghz range.
Cendant
(
CD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upped earnings
forecasts by 2 cents and expects earnings from continuing operations to reach 46
cents.
Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings that rose by 30% to $170.8 million with sales of Avastin
exceeding expectations. Revenue rose to $1.13 billion from $799.7 million a year
ago. The company expects 2004 earnings around 78 cents.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com