Big Salesforce.com Debut!
Stocks turn
green as investors await the announcement of an interest rate hike from the Fed.
The Bank of England voted to raise rates
by 25 basis points. AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said they would drop local service for
residential customers in seven states, affecting 38 million Americans, shortly
after the court threw out regulations to provide cheap access to local carriers
such as AT&T. MCI will probably follow suit due to the higher rates the Baby
Bell companies would charge.
General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said they will move its Asia-Pacific headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai,
China and spend $250 million with a local partner. The company intends to raise
annual output to 1.3 million units by 2007 as it attempts to gain market share.
FedEx
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that rose 47% to $412 million on revenue of $7.04
billion. The company forecasted a bullish Q1 and expects EPS of 95 cents with
full year profit of $4.30. eBay
(
EBAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) acquired India’s online
shopping site, Baazee.com, for $50 million as it expands into India.
The Salesforce.com
(
CRM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
IPO was priced at $10 a share and surged 39%. The company is involved in
customer relationship management (thus, the symbol) software. The SEC began its
formal probe of Career Education
(
CECO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which is accused of
falsifying student records. 10 insiders have sold more than a million shares
over the last 2 months.
Earnings estimates for the S&P increased +20.5% in Q2 and for Q4, analysts
expect 20+% growth.
| Dow | +3.45 | 10398.25 |
| S&P 500 | +1.90 | 1135.74 |
| Nasdaq | +11.53 | 2005.58 |
Strong today are Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.38%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.85%, Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.70%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.33%.
Weak today are Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.83%, Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.63%.
10-year Notes are -15 at
108 130
The dollar
is -0.07 at 89.70
Gold is -0.20 at 395.30
Crude Oil is +0.48 at
38.11
Volume is 620 million on
the NYSE and 800 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1687 | Up Vol 361 |
| Declining | 1349 | Down Vol 207 |
| Ratio | 1.25 | 1.74 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1684 | Up Vol 552 |
| Declining | 1243 | Down Vol 216 |
| Ratio | 1.35 | 2.55 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.25%,
Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.99%, JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.89%
Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.68%.
Stocks in the news:
SBC Communications
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it
would build a new fiber optic network that is expected to cost at least $4
billion over the next five years in an attempt to better compete with cable
companies.
RJ Reynolds
(
RJR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after US antitrust authorities approved its deal to purchase the US assets
of British American Tobacco.
Mylan Laboratories
(
MYL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) sued the
FDA for delaying the launch of its generic version of Duragesic pain relief skin
patch and withdrew its earnings forecast. Investors dumped its shares, which
plummeted 8%.
OraSure
(
OSUR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received FDA
approval for its saliva test for detecting HIV-2 virus.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com