Here’s Why ORCL Surprised The Street Today
Stocks opened strong but finished in
the red with aggressive selling in the
final hours of trading. Techs and small caps led the decline. Traders around the
world cheered the capture of Saddam Hussein as most markets made major gains.
AT&T
(
T |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Loudeye
(
LOUD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) have
agreed to work together to deploy digital music services. In a separate news
release for AT&T, CSFB downgraded the telecom company to neutral. The Wall
Street Journal reports that IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will relocate about 4,700
programming jobs to countries such as India and China in an attempt to cut
costs.
Germany’s
Henkel announced plans to acquire Dial
(
DL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $2.9 billion
cash. The deal would give the detergent and cosmetic maker a larger market share
in America and allow Dial to become a global player. Software giant Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported second-quarter revenues that rose 8% to $2.5 billion,
with profits up 15% to $617 million, boosted by higher-than-expected software
license sales of $849 million.
| Dow | -19.34 |
10022.82 |
| S&P 500 |
-6.10 | 1068.04 |
| Nasdaq | -30.74 |
1918.26 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.11%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.93%, Utility
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.02%, and Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.01%.
Weak today were Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.96%, and Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.79%.
Economic news releases included
NYSE Empire State Index of 37.4.
10-year Notes were -55
at 113 205
The dollar was -0.01 at
88.45
Gold was UNCHG at 409.20
Crude Oil was -0.01 at
33.17
Volume was 1,450,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,799,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was Negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
1268 | Up Vol 515 |
| Declining | 2001 | Down Vol 919 |
| Ratio | 1.58 | 1.94 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
950 | Up Vol 392 |
| Declining | 2261 | Down Vol 1374 |
| Ratio | 2.38 | 3.51 |
Top Dow stocks were:
American Express [AXP|AXP],
+2.03% at 46.15, 3M |MMM|MMM],
+1.90% at 83.01, Caterpillar [CAT|CAT],
+1.30% at 79.07, and Procter & Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.29% at 98.05.
Stocks in the news:
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
(
MLNM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) stopped the trial of Velcade after it showed efficacy in slowing
multiple myeloma growth. The company plans to release trial data in the first
half of 2004.
Roxio
(
ROXI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upped
its revenue forecast for the current quarter to $14.5 million, citing strong
sales of its Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 for Windows, and Toast for Macs.
McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) has sold Donatos
Pizzeria back to its founder and discontinued development of all partner brands
outside of Germany. MCD wants to concentrate on its core products such as
Chipotle and Boston Markets in the US in an attempt to boost long-term growth.
DoubleClick
(
DCLK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded by
USB Piper Jaffray to market perform, citing higher ad volume and price as the
main factors. Doubleclick raised its price target to $15.