Google’s First Earnings Report!

Stocks were mixed Thursday,
with technology leading, boosted by a good report from eBay.

After the close, Microsoft
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reported $0.32 vs. a $0.30 estimate. Revenue was $9.19 billion vs $8.99
estimate. In its first report as a public company, Google
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reported 0.70, ex-items, vs. a 0.56 estimate. The stock traded up to $158 at
press time. Amazon
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reported 0.17 pro-forma revenues, missing
by a penny, with revenue of $1.46 billion, in-line. The stock traded down after
hours.  Coca-Cola
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reported 0.50, better-than-expected;
revenues were $5.66 billion.

eBay
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beat by a penny. Q3 net
rose 77% as listings rose and PayPal expanded to Europe. EBAY gained 9% at
99.59.

Initial claims for the week of 10/16 fell by
25,000 to 329,000; the 4-week moving average is 348,250 .Continuing claims fell
to 2.7 million from 2.8 million. Leading economic indicators fell  -0.1%,
less than expected. It was the fourth straight month of declines. The Philly Fed
index rose to 28.5 in October, more than expected.

With 1/3 of the S&P 500 companies reporting so
far, earnings have risen 11% on average year over year. Of the companies
reporting, 138 have beat vs. 175 a year ago. Thirty-eight met estimates, a year
ago only three met. Forty seven missed, versus 45 a year ago.

Sears
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reported a loss of (0.29); the
estimate was 0.01. The company saw the largest sales decline in 8 years, posting
a Q3 loss of $61 million.

AIG
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missed by a penny. Revenue rose 25%. The company said
they’ve seen no slowdown in business since the Spitzer investigation was
launched last week.

Caterpillar’s

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earnings more than doubled. Mining
equipment sales were strong.

Eli Lilly

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reported 0.69 and said it will cut 1,000 jobs and will take a restructuring
charge of 0.19 -0.24 in Q4.

Merck ]MRK|MRK] reported  0.60 vs. 0.83 a year ago. The company said
Vioxx will affect earnings by 0.50 -0.55 this year, and also said over 300 Vioxx
lawsuits have been filed and expect more.

The 10-year note made its lowest yields in over 6
months.

Dow -25.52 9861
S&P 500 +2.81 1106.47
Nasdaq +20.46 1953.43

Strong sectors were:
Airlines

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+4.21%, Internet
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+3.15%,
Semis

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+3.98%.

Weak sectors were: Healthcare Providers
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-2.03%, Biotech
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-1.46%, Health Care
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, -0.95%.

10-year notes were: -020
at 113 180

The dollar was -0.31 at
86.04

Gold was -0.20 at 424

Crude Oil was +0.08 at 54.49

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.67 billion on the NYSE and
1.97 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2196 Up Vol 986
Declining 1087 Down Vol 504
Ratio 2.02 1.95
Nasdaq
Advancing 1838 Up Vol 1313
Declining 1159 Down Vol 531
Ratio 1.58 2.47

Stocks in the News

Amgen
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beat by 0.02 and raised 2004 earnings and revenue
guidance.

AT&T [T|T} posted a $7.1 loss due to a write-down.

Xerox
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reported 0.11 vs. 0.17 a year ago.

Altera
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beat by 0.04.

Chiron
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reported non-GAAP  of 0.26.

DeVry
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missed by 0.08 and was light on revenues.

STMicroelectronics
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beat by 0.03 and cut guidance.

Primeris Airlines will buy 20 Boeing
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7E7s and 20 737s.

Colgate
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goes to a buy from neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Symantec
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reported 0.41 vs. a 0.39 estimate and announced a
2:1 stock split.

SBC
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was 0.38, in-line.

Brice Wightman