Higher Opening For the End Of The Quarter
Stocks appeared set to open higher
Friday, as the markets prepare to close out the third quarter.
Heads up: The Michigan Sentiment (9:45
AM) and the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ (10:00 AM) reports are due out this
morning.
Staples
(
SPLS |
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PowerRating) was upgraded by
UBS Warburg from Hold to Strong Buy and has a price target of between $16-$18 a
share.
Credit Suisse First Boston met with
Siebel Systems
(
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PowerRating) prior to the company’s analyst meeting Tuesday. After
the meeting CSFB is confident that SEBL will be a software leader, once a
turnaround begins.
An article in the Wall
Street Journal suggested that the market’s sell-off of United Tech
(
UTX |
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PowerRating)
shares may not been warranted based on the company’s exposure to the aerospace
industry.
United Postal Services
(
UPS |
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PowerRating)
lowered estimates for Q3, citing a slowdown in volume due to the attacks on
Sept. 11.
Salomon Smith Barney upgraded Echostar
(
DISH |
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PowerRating) from Neutral to Outperform, with a price target of $27. They also
upgraded General Motors Holdings
(
GMH |
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PowerRating) and Pegasus Communications
(
PGTV |
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PowerRating)
from Outperform to Buy and put price targets of $20 for GMH and $12 for PGTV.
Merrill Lynch lowered estimates on
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
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PowerRating) for the September quarter and FY 2002, due to declining
economic conditions after the attacks.
Lehman Brothers cut the Retail Sector,
citing order cancellations, lower reorder business and direct retail
exposure. Individual stocks they downgraded included Liz Claiborne
(
LIZ |
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PowerRating), Jones
Apparel
(
JNY |
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PowerRating) from Strong Buy to Market Perform, Nautica
(
NAUT |
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PowerRating), Tommy
Hilfiger
(
TOM |
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PowerRating), and Philips Van-Heusen
(
PVH |
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News |
PowerRating) to Market Perform from Buy,
but they maintained their current outlook on Reebok International
(
RBK |
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PowerRating) and
Columbia Sportswear
(
COLM |
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PowerRating).
Robertson Stephens lowered revenue and
earnings estimates for First Data
(
FDC |
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PowerRating) to $6,258 million and $2.43 a share.
Gilead Sciences
(
GILD |
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PowerRating) will
replace Exodus Communications
(
EXDS |
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PowerRating) in the Nasdaq 100, effective Oct. 5.
Robertson Stephens lowered estimates
an downgraded Travelocity.com
(
TVLY |
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News |
PowerRating). TVLY was downgraded to Market Perform
from Buy.
Merrill Lynch lowered estimates on PC unit growth.
Estimates for 2001 were lowered to -6% from -5% and 2002 was lowered from 17.5%
to 10.5%. Revenues for the group were also lowered from 9.9% to flat.
Eaton Corp
(
ETN |
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PowerRating) warned for Q3.
The company expects earnings to be 20-30% below analysts’ consensus of 88 cents.
Genesis Microchip
(
GNSS |
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agreed to acquire Sage
(
SAGI |
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PowerRating) for $15.59 a share.