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
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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
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Latin American
assets to become the biggest operator in this growing region. Eastman Kodak
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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

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shareholders.  WalMart
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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
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said that higher fuel costs will hurt their Q4 earnings despite
strong bookings for March.

After the close, Foundry
Newtworks

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traded down. The company is presenting before Deutsche
Bank. TriQuint Semi
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upped their Q1 guidance; the stock traded
up in after hours trading. CNS Inc
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guided lower for the March
quarter. Texas Instruments
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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
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+0.27% and Energy
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+0.25%.

Weak today were Hardware
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-0.72%, Semis
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-3.76%, Disk Drives
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-3.04%, Networking
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-2.29% and Airlines
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-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.

NYSE  Issues  
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
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will pay $840
million or $25 a share for International Multifoods
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. 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
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improperly paid foreign
officials. This may delay Lockheed Martin’s
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planned Titan
acquisition if conditions of the merger are not satisfied by March 16th.

SigmaTron International
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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
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decided to
purchase spinal surgery products maker Interpore International
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for $280 million. Biomet will pay $14.50 a share and the deal would not
contribute to its earnings until 2005.


bricew@tradingmarkets.com