Lower Opening

Stocks appear set to open lower
Friday.

United Healthcare
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reported
Q3 net earnings of 71 cents a share, beating analysts’ consensus by a penny and
outpacing earnings of 54 cents a year ago for the same quarter. Revenues for the
company rose by 11%.

IVAX Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of
IVAX Corp
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, was awarded a contract by the U.S. government to supply more
than 1.2 billion tablets of the company’s equivalent of doxacycline, which is
another antibiotic used to treat anthrax. In addition, IVX has an application in
with the FDA for a generic version of Cipro.

Manor Healthcare
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reported
that Q3 net income rose 53%. The nursing home operator posted earnings of 30
cents a share for the quarter, beating analysts’ estimates by a penny according to
a survey taken by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Beckman Coulter
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reported
that earnings for Q3 rose 13.4%, citing an accelerated growth of the company’s
robotic genetic analysis services and equipment to detect diseases. Earnings for
the company came in at 52 cents a share, a penny shy of analysts’ estimates
according to Thomson Financial/First Call.

Taiwan Semiconductor
(
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posted
Q3 numbers beating analysts’ estimates. The company also said that it sees that
improvement will be gradual and will continue into 2002.

Drug store chain Duane Reade
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reported a Q3 net of 27 cents a share, coming in at the lower end of guidance and a
penny shy of analysts’ estimates. The company also lowered its outlook for Q4 to
43-46 cents a share.

DB Alex Brown downgraded biotechnology
company Incyte Genomics
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from Strong Buy to Buy.

Bear Stearns downgraded VeriSign
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from Attractive to Neutral.

Credit Suisse First Boston lowered its
rating on phone maker LM Ericcsson
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from Buy to Hold after the
company reported a Q3 loss of 5 cents, missing analysts’ consensus by a penny.

Robertson Stephens downgraded Vitesse
Semiconductor
(
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from Buy to Market Perform.

Centillium Communications
(
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was upgraded by Robertson Stephens from Market Perform to Buy.

Applied Micro Circuits
(
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was
downgraded by Robertson Stephens from Buy to Market Perform.

International Rectifier
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was
upgraded by Salomon Smith Barney from Neutral to Outperform and raised the price
target for the company from $35 to $45.

JDS Uniphase
(
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was
downgraded by Robertson Stephens from Buy to Market Perform.