Lots Of Earnings After The Close

April 22, 2004
Brice Wightman

Stocks rose Thursday as investors brushed aside fears of rising interest rates
and focused on earnings. Almost every
sector was higher. Of the companies reporting so far, 79% have beaten
expectations, while 10% have met expectations and 11% have missed.Â
Year-over-year earnings increased 21%, while year-over-year revenues increased
12%.

Wholesale prices jumped 0.5% from rising food prices while weekly initial claims
only fell by 9,000 to 353,000. eBay
(
EBAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that almost doubled to $200.1 million with revenue
up to $756.2 million. EBAY upped its full year revenue forecast to $3.15 billion
with profits of $1.13 a share.

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted quarterly profits that fell to $1.62 billion, beating consensus by a
penny with sales flat at $5.6 billion. Sales of its Fosamax fell 4% to $759
million while Zocor sales rose 10% to $1.3 billion.
KLA Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a
profit of $66 million with revenue up at $390 million but warned that orders may
drop 15% for this quarter.

After the close, Amgen
(
AMGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported better-than-expected earnings
of $0.57 vs. a $0.56 estimate; revenues were $2.3B vs 2.36B consensus and up
30%; the stock traded higher after market.

Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported $0.34 vs. a $0.29 estimate after multiple charges, and guided higher.

Amazon.com
(
AMZN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported Q1 of $0.23 vs a $0.20 estimate, beating
by 0.03; revenues were $1.53B vs a $1.44B estimate; net income was $111 million.
The company guided revenues lower; the stock traded down after market.

Broadcom
(
BRCM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.03, ex-items, reporting Q1 of $0.29 vs. a $0.26 estimate; revenue was
$573M vs. $563 million. The stock traded lower in the after market.

Dow	+143.93	10461.20
S&P 500	+15.86	1139.95
Nasdaq	+37.28	2032.91

Weak today were Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.79%.

Economic news releases today
included PPI up 0.5%, but PPI excluding food and energy costs was up 0.2%.
Initial claims rose to 353,000.

10-year Notes were +135
at 111 125

The dollar was -0.34 at
90.78

Gold was +1.67 at 392.95

Crude Oil was +0.99 at
36.71

Volume was
1,825,776,000 on
the NYSE, and 2,137,631,00000 on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues

Advancing
2494 Up Vol 1464

Declining 833 Down Vol 356

Ratio 2.99 4.11

Nasdaq

Advancing
2099 Up Vol 1507

Declining
1085 Down Vol 589

Ratio 1.93 2.55

Stocks in the news:

KLA Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted a profit of $66 million with revenue up at $390 million but warned that
orders may drop 15% for this quarter.

Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings of $412 million with revenue rising 34% to $6.47 billion, well ahead of
consensus.

JetBlue
(
JBLU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings
of $15.2 million with operating revenue up 33.1% at $289 million despite
seasonal sluggishness in its East-West markets.

Yum Brands
(
YUM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said its
first-quarter profit rose 21% to $142 million with revenue at $1.97 billion. The
company also upped its 2004 earnings forecasts to $2.32 a share.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com

Lots Of Earnings After The Close

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

Quick Links

Company Info

Contact

Company Resources