IPOs Are Back! Here’s Today’s Action
Stocks are lower today. In
the biggest IPO of the year, China Life (LFC) is trading up from its $18.68 offering price. The company has a 45%
market share of the life insurance market in China; only 1.5% of China’s 1.2
billion population has life insurance. Travel site Orbitz’s (ORBZ)
IPO was priced at $26; the stock opened at $30 and is trading down from that
level. Universal Technical Institute (UTI) traded well above its $20.50 offering price. The company provides technical education training in automotive, collision repair and refinishing as well as marine technologies.
Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) filed for a $2 billion IPO for its Texas-based
chip unit, SPS Spinco. Bear Stearns
(
BSC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported higher revenues
that rose 36% to $1.53 billion, with net income jumping 51% to $288.3 million on
improved segments in its fixed-income, mortgage, credit and interest-rate
product areas. Competitor Lehman Brothers
(
LEH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also experienced
strong earnings with fourth-quarter net income rising to $481 million and
revenue up by 49%, to $2.3 billion.
| Dow | -16.32 |
10113.45 |
| S&P 500 | -2.09 | 1073.09 |
| Nasdaq | -6.72 | 1917.57 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Retail [RLX.X|RLX.X] +1.52%, Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.49%, Health Products
(
RXP.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.53%, Natural
Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.22%.
Weak today is Airlines [XAL.X|XAL.X]
-1.27%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.96%.
No Economic news releases.
10-year Notes are +170
at 113 185
The dollar
is -0.32 at 88.42
Gold is +1.40 at 409.80
Crude Oil is +0.66 at
33.55
Volume is 650,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 741,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1530 | Up Vol 306 |
| Declining | 1574 | Down Vol 321 |
| Ratio | 1.01 | 1.03 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1147 | Up Vol 251 |
| Declining | 1825 | Down Vol 467 |
| Ratio | 1.64 | 1.88 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Boeing [BA|BA],
+2.23% at 40.81, Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.04% at 52.21, Home Depot [HD|HD],
+1.60% at 34.94, and Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.80% at 23.70.
Stocks in the news:
Electronic retailer Best Buy
(
BBY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported higher third-quarter earnings of $122 million on sales of $6.03
billion. It warned that fourth-quarter earnings would be below estimates, at
$1.34 per share.
Courier Fedex
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported net
income of $91 million, a 63% drop from the previous year, citing higher
severance and early retirement costs. Revenue was up 4.5% to $5.92. The
company’s ground delivery division rose 8.1% while the express segment rose
3.7%.
Boeing’s
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) executives gave the
go-ahead for its new 7E7 jet today; the first new plane in more than a decade.
The 7E7 is expected to replace its older 757 and 767 planes.
E-Trade
(
ET |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reaffirmed its 2003
earnings forecast today despite a decline in its mortgage division. If business
remains at current levels, the company expects 2004 net income at 70 to 85 cents
per share, on expected revenue of $1.5 billion. The company also upped its 2003
net income to 50 cents a share.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com