Lots Of Earnings Tonight, Plus IBM Surprises

April 14, 2005
Brice Wightman

Stocks were lower, with the Dow down triple digits
and at new lows for 2005. The Nasdaq closed at at 6-month lows and is
down 10% so far this year. Concern about a
slowing economy is being reflected in weakness in Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
General Motors
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Dupont
(
DD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Several technical areas
were broken, including the transports, which broke below their 200-day moving
average–last week it was the truckers; today the rails are weak. The CRB broke
its 50-day MA. The Dow and Nasdaq are both trading below their 200-day moving
averages.

Jobless claims fell 10K to 330K. Business inventories rose +0.5%. Both were
in-line. The 4-week moving average of jobless claims rose for a sixth straight
week, now at 338,000.

Oil dipped briefly below $50. The last time oil fell below $50 was Feb 22;
last time closed below $50 was Feb 18.

Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD)
missed by 0.06 but beat on revenues. Gross margins were below expectations. The
company sees Q2 processor sales flat to down. AMD plans to spin off its flash
memory unit in an IPO. Piper Jaffray upped the stock to ‘outperform’ from
‘market perform.’

Apple (AAPL)
beat by 0.10 at 0.34, beat on revenues, beat iPod expectations and guided Q3
higher. Revenue, though, lagged some analysts expectations. iPod sales rose 16%
but iPod revenues fell 16%.

Kerr McGee
(
KMG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced a $4 billion stock buyback.

Pepsi
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat estimates by 0.03 and guided higher.

An FDA panel recommended that Mentor’s
(
MNT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) silicon breast
implants be approved.

United Health
(
UNH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03; quarterly profits rose 41%.

Southwest
(
LUV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that tripled; revenues rose 12%.
The company aggresively hedges its fuel costs, It was the 59th consecutive
quarterly profit for LUV.

Fifteen NYSE traders were indicted on charges they cheated investors.
If convicted, they face 10 to 20 years in prison. The NYSE said it will
videotape some traders to ensure no more cheating takes place. Video and audio
surveillance systems are expected to be put in place next year, focusing on the
most widely traded stocks.

A judge is expected to rule on Eli Lilly’s
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Zyprexa patent,
which is being challenged by generic drugmakers. At press time, there was no
word on the decision.

DowÂ	-125.18	10,278.75
Nasdaq	-27.66	1946.71
S&P 500	-11.74	1162.05

The dollar was +0.59 at
85.02

Crude Oil was +0.65 at
52.78

Gold was -4.40 at 423.40

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 2.3 billion on the NYSE and
1.8 billion on the Nasdaq

Market breadth was negative.

NYSE	Issues
Advancing	735	Up Vol 418
Declining	2576	Down Vol 1806
	3.50	4.32
Nasdaq
Advancing	744	Up Vol 358
Declining	2304	Down Vol 1508
	3.09	4.21

Stocks in the News

JDA Software
(
JDAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its Q1 sales outlook.

Storage Tech
(
STK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned of weaker-than-expected earnings.

Unisys
(
UIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a loss of (0.13).

Infosys
(
INY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided lower. The company said software sales fell
30%.

JP Morgan cut its rating on Best Buy
(
BBY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).

UBS cut Northwest and Delta
(
DAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to reduce from neutral.

Brice Wightman

Lots Of Earnings Tonight, Plus IBM Surprises

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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