HPQ, AMAT Lift Stocks
Stocks
are higher on optimistic reports from
Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), lifting the Dow above 10,000.
HP reported earnings of $0.34, in-line with estimates, with revenue $20.1
billion; the company also raised its Q2 revenue forecast to $39.7 billion. CIBC
World Markets upgraded the stock and raised its price target to $30. Some
analysts were still concerned about gross margins, which dipped to 25.2% from
25.4%Â With its biggest quarterly
profit in 3 years, AMAT beat earnings
estimates by 3 cents, with revenue up 29% to $2.02 billion. New orders totaled
$2.21 billion, with the greatest demand from southeast Asia and China. The
company forecast order growth of 5-10%, with revenue of $2.12 billion.
In a conference call, the company said industry-wide
spending on chips will increase 40% this year.
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced it
was on track to achieve its mid-decade target of $7 billion pretax profit. The
company expects FY04 earnings to reach $4.4 billion.
| Dow | +102.70 | 10071.58 |
| S&P 500 | +12.26 | 1103.56 |
| Nasdaq | +34.80 | 1932.44 |
Strong today are Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.73%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.66%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.57%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.43%,
Weak today are REITs
(
DJR.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.33% Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.16%.
10-year Notes are -115
at 108 270
The dollar
is -0.69 at 90.72
Gold is +7.10 at 383.00
Crude Oil is +.73 at
41.15
Volume is 740,000
million on the NYSE, and 926,000 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2432 | Up Vol 651 |
| Declining | 749 | Down Vol 84 |
| Ratio | 3.25 | 7.75 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 2128 | Up Vol 804 |
| Declining | 847 | Down Vol 112 |
| Ratio | 2.51 | 7.17 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+5.83% at 20.90, Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +3.59% at 30.80, IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.92% at 88.92, Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.23% at 43.79.
Stocks in the news:
Autodesk
(
ADSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings that rose five-fold to $43 million on revenue of $298 million. The
company guided the Street lower with an EPS of 26 cents for Q2.
Continental Airlines
(
CAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose
after announcing fare hikes due to rising fuel prices; the company is also
considering work furloughs and wage and benefit cuts.
Cardinal Health
(
CAH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire
Alaris Medical Systems
(
AMI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in a $2 billion deal. CAH said the deal
would enable them to save $80 million each year by the end of 2007.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com