Flat Opening
Stocks appear set to open flat to
higher Thursday.
Claire Stores
(
CLE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a Q3
net of 5 cents a share, in line with analysts’ consensus according to Thomson
Financial/First Call.
Goldman Sachs upgraded Brocade
Communications
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to its Recommend List from Market Outperform.
CIBC World Markets lowered its rating
on Brocade Communications
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) from Buy to Hold.
DB Alex Brown downgraded Instinet
Group
(
INET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) from Buy to Market Perform, citing the merger between REDI
Book/Archipelago which will increase competition.
Lehman Brothers issued some caution on
AOL Time Warner
(
AOL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for next year, stating it will be a challenging year
due to weak advertising and organizational changes among a number of other
factors.
Salomon Smith Barney issued some
positive comments on Cisco Systems
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), seeing CSCO’s “Breakaway
Strategy” as successful. Morgan Stanley said that CSCO should have a
consistent upside in earnings.
DB Alex Brown upgraded Baxter
International
(
BAX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) from Buy to Strong Buy after the company awarded the
smallpox contract to Acambis.
Conexant
(
CNXT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its Q1
revenue guidance up 5% – 7% sequentially.
Jobless claims increased by 54,000 to
488,000 for the week of Nov. 24.
Durable goods for October, excluding
transportation, rose 12.8%.