Earnings After The Close…


Stocks fell Wednesday as concerns of higher rates and tensions in Iraq
outweighed strong corporate profits.

Corinthian Colleges
(
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was lower after reporting a third-quarter
profit of $21.2 million on revenue of $217 million. COO and president Anthony
Digiovanni is also leaving the company. COCO will continue with previously
announced closure of two education centers in California. Plantronics
(
PLT |
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doubled its earnings to $20.9 million with sales that rose to $121.4 on strong
sales of its mobile and wireless handset.

Boeing
(
BA |
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earned $623 million on revenue of $13 billion and upped 2005 revenue forecast by
$2 billion to $58 billion with profit expected to exceed 30 cents a share for
2004. McDonalds
(
MCD |
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reported earnings of $511.5 million with
revenue up 16% to $.4 billion. Same-store sales were up 9.4 globally and up
14.2% in the US. A weak dollar and its new healthy menu contributed to the
higher earnings. Nortel Networks
(
NT |
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dropped 26% after it fired CEO
Frank Dunn and two other high-level executives in

connection with an internal probe of the company’s financial
practices.

Comcast
(
CMCSA |
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has dropped their bid to acquire Disney
(
DIS |
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. Merrill
Lynch upgrades the stock on the news. Comcast posted earnings of $65 million
with revenue up 9.8% to 4.91 billion. The company said it would continue  with
its previously announced share buyback program. 

^next^

Symantec
(
SYMC |
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was
a penny ahead — $0.35 vs $0.34. For the year the company raised guidance; the
stock traded down after-hours. Openwave
(
OPWV |
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beat by 0.03; LSI
Logic

(
LSI |
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Q1 0.06, beating by a penny, guided lower and sees Q2 
at 0.01 -0.03. Akamai Technologies
(
AKAM |
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was in-line, ex-items;
Express Scripts

(
ESRX |
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beat by a penny; ON Semi
(
ONNN |
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missed by 0.03 and guided higher; Time Warner
(
TWX |
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beat by 0.06,
ex-items and beat on revenues; Komag
(
KOMG |
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beat by 0.14 and beat on
revenues but guided Q2 below consensus. InfoSpace
(
INSP |
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missed by
0.02 but beat on revenues; Varian
(
VARI |
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beat by 0.04, ex-items and
guided Q3 below consensus. JDS Uniphase
(
JDSU |
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reported Q3 0.00 vs
(0.01) and guided lower; Millenium Pharmaceuticals
(
MNM |
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beat by
0.14 on lighter revenues.

Dow
-135.56

10342.60
S&P 500

-15.70

1122.41
Nasdaq
-42.99

1989.54

Weak today were Amex Gold
Bugs

(
HUI.X |
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-8.60%,  Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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-7.14%,
Biotechs
 
(
BTK.X |
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-3.39%.

No Economic news releases
today.

10-year Notes were
-160 at 110 190

The dollar
was +0.80 at 91.43

Gold was -13.20 at
385.40

Crude Oil was -0.33 at
37.20

Volume was 1,836,000,000
on the NYSE, and 2,008,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing
778 Up Vol 247
Declining 2500 Down Vol 1593
Ratio 3.21 6.25
Nasdaq
Advancing
654 Up Vol 269
Declining
2536 Down Vol 1734
Ratio 3.89 6.41

Stocks in the news:

Bristol-Myers
(
BMY |
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PowerRating)
posted
earnings of $964 million  on revenue that rose 9.6% to $5.18 billion. Its Blood
clot reduction agent Plavix sales grew 71% to $697 million with its
antipsychotic Abilify sales up 200% to $115 million.

Utility Dynegy
(
DYN |
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PowerRating)
posted
earnings of $74 million with revenue also down 12% to $1.66 billion.

Flextronics International
(
FLEX |
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PowerRating)

reported earnings of $16 million with sales up to $3.77 billion.

Kerr-McGee
(
KMG |
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reported
first-quarter net income of $152.2 million on high commodity prices with revenue
up to $1.12 billion.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com