Now, You Can Get Your Martha Fix 24 Hours A Day…

Stocks are mixed, with blue chips lower after 3M’s
earnings and the Nasdaq barely green on a merger. Trading is
indecisive, with the late morning weaker than the open. Last week’s leader–drug
stocks–are weak today. HMOs are also weak. Traders will be looking closely at
today’s close.

3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.02 and affirmed guidance; revenues were on the
light side.

Adobe
(
ADBE |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is buying Macromedia
(
MACR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $3.4
billion—valuing MACR at $41.86/share.

Eli Lilly
(
LLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat estimates by 0.02 but sees a lower Q2.

Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported Q1 earnings that beat

Suntrust
(
STI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04.

Corning
(
GLW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised guidance.

Sirius Satellite Radio
(
SIRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced at 24-hour lifestyle
channel to be run by Martha Stewart
(
MSO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Martha’s 4-year deal comes
on the heels of a new daily cooking show and an “apprentice-like” show produced
by Mark Burnett.. Sirius has drawn top talent recently by signing Howard Stern
and the NFL. MSO hopes to reach more women in cars.

The 4-week moving average of the AAII Bullish Sentiment Index is 24%. The
4-week Bearish sentiment is at 45%; both are at extremes. The last time the
index showed 24% bullish was March 2003.

Earnings this week (estimates in parentheses):

Tonight

Novellus (0.22)

Tuesday

Yahoo (0.11), MER (1.18)

Wednesday

EBAY (0.18),  Caterpillar (1.34),  Ford (0.39),  MOT 
(0.19),  JPM (0.69),  QCOM (0.27),  SBC  (0.33),  YUM
(0.52)

Thursday

GOOG (0.92), T (0.59)  MCD (0.43)

Friday

EK (0.33), HAL (0.44), IP (0.33), MYG (0.20)

Two-thirds of firms that have provided Q2 guidance have guided lower.
Thompson Financial says that Q1 earnings growth could be 11-12%.

Strong sectors were:  Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.85%   
Oil Services
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.94%    Chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.92% 

Weak sectors were:   Healthcare Providers
(
$HMO.X$ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.49%    Pharmaceuticals
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.98%  
Computer Hardware
(
$HWI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.94%    

Stocks in the News

Human Genome Science
(
HGSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported positive Phase I clinical
trials in a tumor treatment drug.

General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire Bombardier Capital $1.4 billion
in cash.

Hasbro
(
HAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a Q1 loss of 0.02; estimates were for 
+0.04.

CV Theraputics
(
CVTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said Renexa reduced angina in a late-stage
trial.

Symantec
(
SYMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank.

Gamestop
(
GME |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire Electronics Boutique
(
ELBO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
in a $1.44 billion cash and stock deal.