Earnings After The Close…
Stocks were
mixed despite
optimistic reports from
Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). The market rallied early but it was
all downhill after 2:00 ET. HPQ reported earnings of $0.34, in-line with
estimates, with revenue $20.1 billion; the company also raised its Q2 revenue
forecast to $39.7 billion. CIBC World Markets upgraded the stock and raised its
price target to $30. Some analysts were still concerned about gross margins,
which dipped to 25.2% from 25.4% With its
biggest quarterly profit in 3 years,
AMAT beat earnings estimates by 3 cents, with
revenue up 29% to $2.02 billion. New orders totaled $2.21 billion, with the
greatest demand from southeast Asia and China. The company forecast order growth
of 5-10%, with revenue of $2.12 billion. In a
conference call, the company said industry-wide spending on chips will increase
40% this year.
Crude oil prices rose again
after government data showed that inventories fell last week. AMR said fuel
costs rose $600-$700 million from a year ago.
Continental Airlines
(
CAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced fare hikes due to
rising fuel prices; the company is also considering work furloughs and wage and
benefit cuts. The company said it would not
break even this year.
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced it
was on track to achieve its mid-decade target of $7 billion pretax profit. The
company expects FY04 earnings to reach $4.4 billion.
After the close, Men’s
Wearhouse
(
MW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.06 and guided higher; Brocade
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was in-line; Synopsys
(
SNPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02 and guided higher;
Intuit
(
INTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04 and guide lower.
| Dow | -30.80 | 9937.71 |
| S&P 500 | -2.81 | 1088.68 |
| Nasdaq | +0.35 | 1898.17 |
Strong today were Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.69%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.77%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.96%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.84%,
Weak today were REITs
(
DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.33% Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.16%.
10-year Notes were -145
at 108 240
The dollar
was -0.66 at 90.59
Gold was +3.61 at 382.01
Crude Oil was +.73 at
41.15
Volume was 1.51 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.77 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1830 | Up Vol 772 |
| Declining | 1486 | Down Vol 625 |
| Ratio | 1.23 | 1.23 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1554 | Up Vol 975 |
| Declining | 1574 | Down Vol 676 |
| Ratio | 1.01 | 1.44 |
Stocks in the news:
Autodesk
(
ADSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings that rose five-fold to $43 million on revenue of $298 million. The
company guided the Street lower with an EPS of 26 cents for Q2.
Cardinal Health
(
CAH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire
Alaris Medical Systems
(
AMI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in a $2 billion deal. CAH said the deal
would enable them to save $80 million each year by the end of 2007.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com