Look Who’s Restating Earnings

Stocks are
slightly higher
. Freddie
Mac

(
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restated its earnings for 2000 to 2002 to $5 billion. The
restatement will increase income by $4.4 billion for 2000-2002 and by $600 million before 2000. Time Warner
(
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chose Edgar Bronfman Jr.
as the preferred candidate to buy Warner Music Group. TWX expects to fetch $2.5
billion in this sale. Worldwide delivery carrier UPS
(
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announced
it would raise ground delivery rates by 1.9% next year, the smallest hike in
seven years. Air rates would rise 2.9%, all increases are effective January 5.

Dow +0.14% 9633.42
S&P 500 +0.22% 1035.99
Nasdaq +0.58% 1892.98

The day’s leading sectors are
Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +2.41%, Telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
+1.04%, Internet Commerce
(
$ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.99%, Semiconductors
(
$GSM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, +0.65%.

Weak today are Health
Provider
[RXH.X|RXH
.X] -2.41%, Oil
Service

(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, -2.20% and Healthcare
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
-1.02%

Economic news releases for
today will include Treasury Budget numbers that was not available at the time
this article was written.

10-year Notes are +50
at 113 305.

The dollar
is +0.08 at 90.80.

Gold is +0.11 at 394.80

Crude Oil is -0.06 at
32.86.

Volume is 569,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 831,000,000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is Positive

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1807 Up Vol
284112K
Declining 1196 Down Vol
200652K
Ratio 1.49 1.37
Nasdaq
Advancing 1487 Up Vol
377339K
Declining 1353 Down Vol
290001K
Ratio 1.08 1.31

Top Dow stocks are:

McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+1.82% at 25.13, AT&T |
T|T],
1.4% at 19.36, Citigroup [C|
C],
+0.59% at 46.36, and J.P Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
Quote |
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PowerRating)
, +0.58% at 35.07

Stocks in the news:

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

announced it would cease Phase III clinical program for its diabetes treatment
MK-767. It was previously licensed from a Japanese company Kyorin
Pharmaceutical. Tests were halted due to reports of a rare type of malignant
tumor.

Gap
(
GPS |
Quote |
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PowerRating)
posted a
profit of $262.6 million on a 7.8% increase in revenue. Revenue jumped to $3.93
billion, well ahead of Wall Street estimates. Same-store sales were up 6% for
the quarter.

Autodesk
(
ADSK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
maker of the AutoCAD design software, reported a net income of $22.6 million on
sales of $233.9 million. It expects revenue for fiscal year 2005 to be in the
range of $940 million to $975 million with earnings of $1.00.

Barnes & Noble
(
BKS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported
third-quarter earnings of $10.2 million on sales of $1.27 billion. It expects
earnings to be $2.00 to $2.07 a share for the full year.

If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.

Brice
Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com