Lay Indicted, No New Trial For Martha
Stocks are
mixed after weak outlooks from two tech companies weigh on investors.
Former Enron CEO Ken Lay was indicted on 17 criminal charges, including fraud
and making false statements; he has denied all wrongdoings. Retailers such as
ANF, TGT, WMT, GPS reported disappointing sales numbers. Initial clams dropped
surprisingly to 310,000, almost matching a four-year low.
Yahoo!
(
YHOO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported in-line earnings of $113 million but guided lower for the
quarter; the company expects sales of $2.5 billion for the full year.
Second-quarter marketing revenue totaled $691 million, up 215% from a year ago.
Seibel Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned that Q2 would come in below
expectations.
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings that missed by 2 cents with income from continuing operations at $404
million and net income at $759 million. Sales rose to $6.1 billion, the highest
level since 2000. The company’s debt to capital ratio fell to 33.6%.
A Federal judge denied Martha
Stewart’s request for a new trial.
| Dow | +27.54 | 10247.84 |
| S&P 500 | -0.74 | 1117.69 |
| Nasdaq | -7.85 | 1958.40 |
Strong today are: Amex Gold
Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.63%, Â Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.31%,
Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.08%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.08%.
Weak today are: Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.45%, Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.69%.
Economic news release today
included initial claims that fell to 310,000.
10-year Notes are +45 at
110 180
The dollar
is -0.09 at 87.79
Gold is +4.00 at 406.70
Crude Oil is +0.22 at
39.30
Volume is 650 million on
the NYSE, and 896 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1318 | Up Vol 234 |
| Declining | 1750 | Down Vol 390 |
| Ratio | 1.32 | 1.20 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1046 | Up Vol 287 |
| Declining | 1853 | Down Vol 595 |
| Ratio | 1.76 | 2.07 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.60%,
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.56% Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.12%, Coca
Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +0.92%,.
Stocks in the news:
Nextel
(
NXTL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was awarded a 10 megahertz swath of spectrum in the 1.9Ghz range.
Cendant
(
CD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upped earnings
forecasts by 2 cents and expects earnings from continuing operations to reach 46
cents.
Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings that rose by 30% to $170.8 million with sales of Avastin
exceeding expectations. Revenue rose to $1.13 billion from $799.7 million a year
ago. The company expects 2004 earnings around 78 cents.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com