Dell Reports, Plus, Big Day For Maria Bartiromo

Stocks
were mixed on a day that began with a higher-than-expected PPI
and a
lackluster labor environment. Initial claims rose by 13,000 to 331,000, with the
four-week moving average at 335,750, the lowest in three years. Producer price
index rose by 0.7% vs. the 0.3% consensus, on higher energy and dairy costs.
Dairy prices showed a whopping 10.4% jump, the largest since 1946. According to
a survey from the AAA, the average price for regular gasoline hit an all-time
high of $1.95 a gallon.

Oil hit $41/bbl. intraday; the intraday high in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait
was 41.15. This is the 3rd consecutive day of above $40 oil.

Dunkin’ Donuts will open stores inside 10 Wal-Mart locations. Dunkin’ Donuts
is owned by Allied Domecq Plc.

Retailer Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

reported earnings of $2.2 billion, beating Wall Street expectations by a penny.
Net sales rose 14.2% to $64.8 billion with US same-store sales up 6.4%. Its
competitor Target
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $438 million with sales
up 12.3% at $11.59 billion.

CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo
rang the closing bell at the NYSE, commemorating her last regularly scheduled
broadcast from the floor. Bartiromo pioneered on-the-floor reporting, starting
in 1994. She will continue as host on CNBC’s “The Closing Bell” segment.

After the close, Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

reported Q1 in-line; revenues were $11.5 billion vs a $11.4 billion estimate.
Net income was $731 million, up 22.4%. The stock traded down after hours. 
Analog Devices
(
ADI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.04 and beat on revenues; BEA
Systems

(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was in-line at 0.08/share, but light on revenues at
$262.6 million; Alkermes
(
ALKS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
missed by 0.03; Kohl’s
(
KSS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

was in-line.

Tomorrow at 8:30 AM ET, look
for the CPI, with consensus at 0.3%, core at 0.2%.

Dow -34.32 10010.74
S&P 500 -0.81 1099.74
Nasdaq +0.44 1926.03

Strong today: Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.50%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.23%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+1.05%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.95%, Telecom
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+1.21%.

Weak today were Amex Gold
Bugs

(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.11%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.74%,
and Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.74%.

Economic news releases today:
PPI prices rose by a surprising 0.7%, core PPI (excluding food and energy costs)
met expectations and was up 0.2%. Initial claims rose by 13,000 to 331,000.
Retail sales fell by a larger-than-expected 0.5%; excluding auto sales, retails
sales fell by 0.1%.

10-year Notes are -115
at 108 065

The dollar
was +0.67 at 91.96

Gold was -3.83 at 374.47

Crude Oil was +0.29 at
40.95

Volume was 1.4 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.5 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1676 Up Vol 691
Declining 1650 Down Vol 595
Ratio 1.01 1.16
Nasdaq
Advancing 1380 Up Vol 723
Declining 1740 Down Vol 678
Ratio 1.26 1.06

Stocks in the news:

Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has
settled with Florida’s AG and agreed to pay $430 million for the illegal
marketing of its epilepsy drug Neurotin.

MaMa.com
(
MAMA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

rose after reporting a profit of $1.3 million with revenue that rose 135% to
$4.2 million.

Panera Bread
(
PNRA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported
earnings of $9.5 million on revenue of $129.9 million but guided the Street
lower on higher commodity costs and forecast an EPS of 21 cents for next
quarter.

Elan
(
ELN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

reported a net loss of 0.17 a share, 10 cents better than estimates, with
revenue falling 29% to $159.0 million.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com