Lower Opening
Stocks appeared set to open lower
Wednesday.
Former high flyer Akamai Technologies
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PowerRating) reaffirmed Q4 guidance before its presentation at Credit Suisse
First Boston’s annual tech conference.
Gold traded higher as the U.S. dollar
fell against all major currencies.
Standard & Poor’s lowered its
rating on Japan’s credit rating and put the country’s largest banks on credit
watch. S&P lowered the credit rating from AA+ to AA.
Stewart & Stevenson
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PowerRating)
said earnings slid approximately 40% in Q3. The energy equipment maker
reported earnings of $11.7 million or 40 cents a share for the quarter including
items. Excluding items, earnings came in at $5.1 million vs. $8.6 million
from the same quarter a year ago.
SCP Pool Corp
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PowerRating) has
completed a new $110 million revolving credit line to replace the current senior
credit line. The company also announced that it plans to buy back up to $30
million of its stock.
UBS Warburg initiated coverage on
Neuberger Berman with a Hold rating and put a one year price target of $45.
Merrill Lynch added United Parcel
Service
(
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PowerRating) to its Focus List.
Salomon Smith Barney upgraded
Centillium Communications
(
CTLM |
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PowerRating) from Neutral to Buy.
Merrill Lynch downgraded Whole Foods
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PowerRating)
from Accumulate to Near Term Neutral.
Jabil Circuit
(
JBL |
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PowerRating) was downgraded
by Prudential Securities from Buy to Hold.
ADC Telecom
(
ADCT |
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PowerRating) and Cox
Communications
(
COX |
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PowerRating) have signed a three-year agreement where COX will install
ADCT’s Fast Flow Broadband Provisioning Manager. Cox Communications
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PowerRating) said it
will install hundreds of Riverstone Networks
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RSTN |
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PowerRating) RS family metro routers
in all of the company’s U.S. cable systems.