Look At These Blow-Out Earnings

  • July 19, 2005
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks ended higher as IBM and Merrill Lynch beat analysts estimates, with the S&P near
4-year highs.  Cyclicals were strong. The Nasdaq regained its highs for 2005,
but on light volume.

New home construction in June was unchanged at an annual rate of 2.004
million units. Building permits for new housing rose 2.4%. Housing starts have
been over 2 million in 8 of the past 12 months.

After the bell, Intel
(
INTC |
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by a penny, revenues $9.2 billion. The company now sees Q3 revenues $9.6 billion
to $10.2 billion. Intel traded to a  52-week high. Yahoo
(
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reported earnings in line with estimates. Motorola
(
MOT |
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that beat estimates by a penny;
revenues were $8.83 billion vs. $8.55 billion estimate. Amgen
(
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reported 0.88 vs. 0.72 estimate and gave upside guidance for 2005 — to 3.10 –
3.20. Amgen also traded to a new 52-week high.

IBM reported 1.12 vs. 1.03, better than expected. Revenues beat
estimates at 22.3 billion. Gross margins were 39.4%.

Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
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estimate.

Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
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(
IP |
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announced restructuring plans. HP will
cut 14,500 jobs, International Paper will sell $8 billion to $10 billion in
assets and make substantial job cuts.

Strong sectors are:  Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
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+3.71% Internet Index
(
$GIN.X |
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(
$NWX.X |
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PowerRating) +2.08%

Weak sectors are:   Healthcare
(
$HMO.X |
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PowerRating) -1.20%    Pharmaceuticals
(
$DRG.X |
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PowerRating) -0.19%    Banks
(
$BKXX |
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PowerRating) -0.16

Dow -71.57 10,646.56
Nasdaq -28.31 2173.18
S&P 500 -8.22 1229.35

The dollar was +0.23 at 89.87

Crude Oil was
-0.24 at 58.66

Gold was -2.00
at 419.70

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was
ce=”Arial” size=”2″>2.01 billionce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”> on the NYSE and

ce=”Arial” size=”2″>1.62 billionce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”> on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2287 Up Vol 1190
Declining 1001 Down Vol 582
2.28 2.04
Nasdaq
Advancing 2065 Up Vol 1173
Declining 998 Down Vol 295
2.07 3.98

Stocks in the News

Wells Fargo
(
WFC |
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Ford
(
F |
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Biogen
(
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PowerRating) said that its Sentinal Tysabry-Avonex trial achieved its
primary endpoint.

Avon
(
AVP |
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PowerRating) was inline but warned for Q3 and  2005.

Radio Shack
(
RSH |
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PowerRating) missed by a penny.

Brice Wightman