Lots Of Earnings This Week. Here Are Some To Pay Attention To

Stocks were lower on a Ford profit warning and
surprisingly did not react to lower oil. Ford
(
F |
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PowerRating) cut its earnings view and now sees
$1.25-1.50 for 2005. Bank of America cut its price target on the stock. The
weakness in both Ford and GM has impacted other segments of the economy,
including auto parts manufacturers, corporate bonds and some finance companies.

OPEC said they would raise production to 28.5 million barrels in May from the
current 25 million. Oil is now down six days in a row. The CFTC last week said
that speculative interest in crude was the highest in history. Gas has risen 19%
in the past 3 weeks. Bonds rose modestly.

Trader talk: Oil is down 10% in the past 5 sessions but the market hasn’t
made any appreciable move up. Are interest rates the new market mover?

After the close, Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) reported Q1 of 0.29 (non-GAAP)
vs. a 0.25 estimate.  Herceptin sales were $129.6 million. Avastin sales
were 202.9 million. Tarceva sales were $47.6 million.

Copper continued its rally, to new high levels.

Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
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PowerRating) said April same store sales would be flat to +2%.

JP Morgan said Seprecor’s
(
SEPR |
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PowerRating) sleeping drug Lunestra exceeded
expectations in its first week. Sanofi Aventis received approvable letter on
sleep drug Ambien CR, not approval. This should be a positive for SEPR.

NCR Corp.
(
NCR |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) raised Q1 and 2005 guidance. The company now
expects 0.16 for Q1 and 1.35 -1.40 for 2005.

This week, 31 S&P 500 companies will report, including two Dow stocks. Here
are some highlights (including estimates):

Tuesday

Abbot Labs
(
ABT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.58

Wednesday

Advanced Micro Devices
(
AMD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.02

Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.24

Thursday

Southwest
(
LUV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.05

Sun Micro
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.00

Pepsi
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.51

Friday

Citigroup [C|C]  1.02 

General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.37

Warren Buffett spoke to federal and state regulators regarding
transactions between Berkshire Hathaway and General Re.

Lazard is planning an IPO in about three weeks. The company will offer
30.5 million shares between $25-$27 and will be listed on the NYSE under the
symbol LAZ.

In a Zacks study done for The Wall Street Journal, stocks with
the most ‘sell’ recommendations were shown to outperform those with ‘buy’ or
‘hold’ recommendations. According to the study, this relationship has been in
effect for several years, but has widened since 2000.

Tomorrow, look for the March 22 FOMC minutes to be released. This was the
meeting that caused some to feel the Fed would become more aggressive.

Strong sectors were: Utilities
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.13%   Oil
(
$OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.98%  Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.93%  

Weak sectors were:     Internet
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.22%    Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X$ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.97%  
Semis
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.80%    

Stocks in the News

Fourth quarter profits at Circuit City
(
CC |
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PowerRating) fell; the company
earned 0.43 vs. 0.46 a year earlier. 

XM Satellite Radio
(
XMSR |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is teaming up with AOL in online radio
service that will deliver 200 channels to AOL members.

Korean Airlines is buying 10 Boeing
(
BA |
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News |
PowerRating) 7E7 Dreamliners for $1.2
billion.

CNF Inc.
(
CNF |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) guided higher for Q1.

Proctor & Gamble
(
PG |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) is boosting its dividend by 12% to 0.28
quarterly. IT is the 49th straight year of rising dividends.

Darden
(
DRI |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was the subject of a positive article in Barron’s.