Get Ready For Wednesday With These Numbers

Stocks
rose Tuesday with the US industrial output rising 0.8%.

Cingular Wireless

(
SBC |
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came out ahead on the AT&T Wireless
(
AWE |
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bidding contest, making a
$15/share offer. The all-cash offer is worth $41 billion, a premium of 30% over
AWE’s Friday’s close. Combined, the company would have 46 million customers
with revenue exceeding $32 billion. NTT DoCoMo
(
DCM |
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which holds a
16% stake in AWE is expected to sell its stake. Farm equipment maker Deere
(
DE |
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reported earnings that more than doubled with strength in its
agriculture, construction and forestry divisions. Earnings came in at $170.8
million on revenue of $3.48 billion. Disney’s
(
DIS |
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board rejected
Comcast’s
(
CMCSK |
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offer, saying the $47.57 billion value was too
low. Comcast retorted that it has no plans to acquire Disney at current
valuations and is not running a consent solicitation to replace its board.

Dow
+87.03

10714.89
S&P 500

+11.18

1156.99
Nasdaq
+26.79

2080.35

The day’s leading sectors were
Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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+3.26%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
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+3.41%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
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+2.37%, Hardware
(
HWI.X |
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+2.41%.

Economic news releases included
a rise in the Capacity Utilization at 76.2%, NY Empire State index at 42.05.
Industrial output also was higher-than-expected at +0.8%

Abercrombie & Fitch
(
ANF |
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PowerRating)

beat by a penny at 0.96 vs 0.95; Agilent
(
A |
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PowerRating)
came in a penny shy —
0.21 vs 0.22 estimate, excluding charges. WalMart reported February same
store sales near the high end and the company will report Q4 on Thursday.
Network Appliance

(
NTAP |
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PowerRating)
beat by and traded higher.

10-year Notes were -010
at 114 255

Dollar was -0.46 at
85.02

Gold was +2.90 at 415.45

Crude Oil was +0.75 at
34.86

Euro was +1.02 at 128.24

Volume was
1,392,166,000
on the NYSE, and
1,624,459,000
on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2435 Up Vol 1087
Declining 896 Down Vol 288
Ratio 2.71 3.77
Nasdaq
Advancing 2092 Up Vol 1174
Declining 1096 Dow Vol 400
Ratio 1.90 2.93

Stocks in the news:

Janus Capital
(
JNS |
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PowerRating)
rose higher
on a favorable Barron’s article. Barron’s suggested that JNS shares can
appreciate 20% higher as its balance sheet debt reduction program would lead to
higher earnings.

National City
(
NCC |
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PowerRating)
announced a
deal to acquire Ohio-based Provident Financial Group
(
PFGI |
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PowerRating)
in a
stock deal worth $2.1 billion. Each Provident share will be exchanged for 1.135
National share.

Krispy Kreme
(
KKD |
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News |
PowerRating)
said it
expects fourth-quarter earnings to be 26 cents a share with increased revenue.
Looking ahead, the company expects to earn $1.17 a share for fiscal year 2005.


bricew@tradingmarkets.com