INTC Hits Key Level; TXN Raises Guidance
Stocks
fell Monday with the major indices closing at their lows as investors continue
to focus on Friday’s poor jobs report. The
semiconductor Index
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed below 500 and Intel closed below
its 200-day moving average as money went into more defensive issues.
Spanish telecom carrier Telefonica announced a
$5.85 billion deal to purchase BellSouth’s
(
BLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Latin American
assets to become the biggest operator in this growing region. Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a deal to acquire digital print division of Germany’s
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. Kodak also cut operating earnings by 17 cents
due to the acquisition. The deal is valued at about $150 million.
General Electric said it
will sell about 118 million shares to raise $3.8 billion. GE didn’t specifically
state the reason but many anticipate the funds from the sale would go towards
Vivendi Unversal
(
V |
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News |
PowerRating) shareholders. WalMart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it
expects to reach March sales forecasts of 5% increase for its same-store sales.
SG Cowan put out a ‘Buy’ on
United Technologies. Morgan Stanley raised its target on Berkshire
Hathaway to $100,000. The stock closed at $94,000. Frontier Airlines
(
FRNT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said that higher fuel costs will hurt their Q4 earnings despite
strong bookings for March.
After the close, Foundry
Newtworks
(
FDRY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded down. The company is presenting before Deutsche
Bank. TriQuint Semi
(
TQNT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upped their Q1 guidance; the stock traded
up in after hours trading. CNS Inc
(
CNXS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided lower for the March
quarter. Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised guidance on revenues and EPS;
revenue estimates were raised to $2.835 – $2.95B. EPS estimates were raised to
0.19 – 0.22.
| Dow | -66.07 |
10529.48 |
| S&P 500 |
-9.66 | 1147.20 |
| Nasdaq | -38.85 |
2008.78 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Oil
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.27% and Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.25%.
Weak today were Hardware
(
GHA.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.72%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.76%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.04%, Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.29% and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.06%.
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes were +140
at 115 210
Dollar was -0.26 at
87.92.
Gold was +0.87 at
400.27.
Crude Oil was -0.74 at
36.57.
Volume was
1,255,622,000
on the NYSE, and 2,034,161,000
on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSEÂ | Issues | Â |
| Advancing | 1372 | Up Vol      351 |
| Declining | 1922 | Down Vol  845 |
| Ratio | 1.40 | 2.40 |
| Nasdaq |  |  |
| Advancing | 1066 | Up Vol     374 |
| Declining | 2108 | Dow Vol   1460 |
| Ratio | 1.97 | 3.90 |
Stocks in the news:
J.M. Smucker
(
SJM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will pay $840
million or $25 a share for International Multifoods
(
IMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) . Combined,
total sales would exceed $2.4 billion and would enable Smuckers to save about
$50 million by 2007
The Justice Department initiated a criminal
inquiry into allegations that Titan
(
TTN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) improperly paid foreign
officials. This may delay Lockheed Martin’s
(
LMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) planned Titan
acquisition if conditions of the merger are not satisfied by March 16th.
SigmaTron International
(
SGMA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
dropped 20% after reporting lower revenue of $23.9 million with earnings at $1.2
million. The company cited pricing pressures from customers and increases in
insurance and regulatory costs as the main reasons for the lower earnings.
Biomet
(
BMET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) decided to
purchase spinal surgery products maker Interpore International
(
BONZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
for $280 million. Biomet will pay $14.50 a share and the deal would not
contribute to its earnings until 2005.