Cutting Carbs Not Good For This Company
Stocks fell
Tuesday as stocks pull back from an overbought condition.
Some traders were looking for negative comments from
Greenspan, but overall his speech at the Bundesbank was fairly benign. Biotech firm Abbott Laboratories
(
ABT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced it would
acquire diabetes test maker TheraSense
(
THER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $1.2 billion.
TheraSense’s main product is its FreeStyle strip for testing blood-sugar
levels. US crude
(
CLJ4 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) prices surged to a 10-month high, rising past $35 a
barrel. OPEC’s president said that if prices remain at current levels, it would
make it hard for the cartel to cut supplies next month.
Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Lucent
(
LU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will supply over $2 billion of goods to China’s largest
telephone and personal computer companies. Shares of both telecommunications
makers are trading higher on the news. At a conference in Berlin, Alan Greenspan
said that he saw no problems in the near term for the massive US trade gap but
warned that protectionist policies may make global economies less flexible.
The SEC said it found mutual
fund share sale abuses at 13 of 15 Wall Street brokerages examined. Cold weather
and declining inventories sent crude up briefly over $35/bbl.
Accenture
(
ACN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell
12% after missing expectations and guiding lower. Bank of America raised
its rating on Toys R Us to neutral. American Italian Pasta
(
PLB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell 10% after a Bear Stearns downgrade as people cut out carbs out of their
diet.
| Dow | -58.00 |
10427.18 |
| S&P 500 | -6.01 | 1121.22 |
| Nasdaq | -15.34 |
2096.44 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Retail
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.66%, Oils
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.24%, and
Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.17%.
Weak today were Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.77%, and Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.68%.
No Economic news
releases today.
10-year Notes closed at
4.02%
The dollar
was -0.11 at 85.44.
Gold was -1.85 at 423.07
Crude Oil was -0.45 at
34.01.
Volume was
1,548,263,000 on
the NYSE, and 2,364,811,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1579 | Up Vol 576 |
| Declining | 1537 | Down Vol 879 |
| Ratio | 1.02 | 1.52 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1432 | Up Vol 722 |
| Declining | 1773 | Down Vol 1583 |
| Ratio | 1.23 | 2.19 |
Stocks in the news:
After the close, headset maker Plantronics
(
PLT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat Q3 ests. by .09, beat on revenues and guided higher. The stock
was halted.
E-Trade Financial
(
ET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after
confirming that it is in talks with Toronto-Dominion
(
TD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on a
possible merger of online trading units. It would create the 2nd largest
brokerage firm after Charles Schwab.
Helen of Troy
(
HELE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
third-quarter earnings of $25.1 million with sales rising 25% to $179.2
million. It also raised its full-year outlook ending in February to $2.05 a
share.
Faro Technologies
(
FARO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 1.8%
after reporting sales that rose 49% in the fourth quarter. Sales came in at
$22.5 billion
Larry Ellison said that he would allow CFO Jeff
Henley to become chairman. Having worked at Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for the
past 12 years, Henley is known as a financial disciplinarian who played a
critical role in rescuing the company from possible takeover or bankruptcy in
the early ’90s.
Drug store CVS
(
CVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a 9.4%
increase for December same-store sales with demand coming from cold remedies. It
also said that it expects to beat previous earnings forecasts.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com