Mixed Opening
Stocks appeared set to open mixed
Monday.
Verizon Communications
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PowerRating) signed
a tentative deal with approximately 4,200 workers in Texas on a new contract.
According to a report in the Wall
Street Journal, Merck-Medco, the pharmacy unit of Merck & Co., said it plans
to announce the company has convinced doctors to start prescribing the generic
version of Prozac, fluoxtine.
The Tokyo stock exchange, the Nikkei,
closed near its 17-year lows, as the dollar continued to weaken against the yen.
Filtration maker Pall Corp
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PowerRating)
said it expected to earn 17 to 19 cents a share for Q4. Analysts’ consensus was for
22 cents a share.
Europe’s indexes fell to new 22-month
lows as the technology and telecom stocks continued to get hammered.
Fujistu plans to cut its workforce by
10%, citing the decline in chip prices. The semiconductor and equipment maker
said this restructuring could put as many as 15,000 workers out of work.
Morgan Stanley downgraded Extreme
Networks
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EXTR |
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PowerRating) from Outperform to Neutral.
Lowes Companies
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LOW |
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PowerRating) reported
earnings of 42 cents a share, beating analysts’ consensus of 41 cents a share
according to a poll taken by Thomson Financial/First Call.
Agilent Technologies
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A |
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scheduled to report earnings after the bell Monday.
Ciena
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CIEN |
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PowerRating) was downgraded by
Lehman Brothers to Market Perform from Strong Buy.
Micromuse
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MUSE |
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PowerRating) was upgraded by
Robertson Stephens from Market Perform to Buy.