Here’s Why There’s Optimism On The Street
Stocks
rallied in the afternoon to close higher.
PepsiCo
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its earnings outlook
to 46 cents a share with a 10% increase in revenue. For the full year, PEP
expects earnings of $2.28 and will be increasing its stock buyback program from
$5 billion to $7 billion and raising dividends by 44% to 92 cents. General
Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) expects March US total vehicles sales to be about 10% higher
than February. Interest in GM’s luxury-class vehicles generates most of the
profits.
Oil giant ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose on news of a reduction of the $11.8 billion punitive damages award to $3.5
billion for unpaid royalties on offshore natural gas leases.
Vascular Solutions
(
VASC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) shot up
47% after receiving FDA approval for its specially treated bandage that helps
stop bleeding.
Five NYSE firms settled with
the SEC for $241.8 million in improper trading charges. All firms settled
without admitting guilt and denied any wrongdoing. Individual specialists
were dismissed by their brokerages and NYSE CEO John Thain said he would
go after them. The White House finally agreed to let Condoleezza Rice to testify
under oath publicly before the 9/11 commission. Oil prices went back up after a
spokesman from Saudi Arabia said he was in favor of a supply cut. OPEC is
meeting tomorrow and is expected to announced April production numbers.
American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
signed an agreement with China’s largest state-run bank ICBC to issue its own
brand of credit cards to Chinese consumers. Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reached an
agreement with Intergraph
(
INGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on its Itanium microchip for a
total of $225 million. Intergraph also granted Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) various
licenses and dropped pending litigation against Dell.
| Dow | +52.07 |
10381.70 |
| S&P 500 |
+4.53 | 1127.00 |
| Nasdaq | +8.06 | 2000.63 |
The day’s leading sectors were Oil
Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.43%, Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.13%, Oil
Index
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.86%, Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.73%, and Disk
Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.61%.
Weak today were Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.27% and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.10%.
Economic news releases today
included higher consumer confidence levels at 88.3.
10-year Notes were -20
at 114 270
The dollar
was -0.20 at 88.78
Gold was unchanged at
422.28
Crude Oil was +0.85 at
35.50
The euro
was +0.14 at 122.39
Volume was 1,300,000,000
on the NYSE, and 1,598,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was
positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
2152 | Up Vol 924 |
| Declining | 1084 | Down Vol 363 |
| Ratio | 2.09 | 2.55 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1870 | Up Vol 893 |
| Declining |
1262 | Down Vol 590 |
| Ratio | 1.50 | 1.51 |
Stocks in the news:
Silicon Storage Technology
(
SSTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided the Street higher on strong sales and decreased
manufacturing costs. It expects to earn 12 cents on revenue of $102 million.
NPS
Pharmaceuticals
(
NPSP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced positive Stage III results of
its osteoporosis trials with its shares up 7% as a result.
Restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen
(
CPKI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its first-quarter profit outlook reporting same-store sales
that rose by 6.2%. It now expect earnings to reach 19 cents
Autodesk
(
ADSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised its first
quarter and annual outlook on strength in all divisions. Earnings for the first
quarter will be around 25 cents with revenue at $270 million and for the full
year, revenue should reach $1.06 billion with earnings at $1.31 cents a share.