Oracle Beats — But News From Xilinx Is Not So Good
Stocks were slightly
higher Tuesday even after worse-than-expected retail sales data and
downbeat outlooks from Office Depot, Kroger, and LSI Logic. For August, retail
sales fell -0.3%; ex-auto, they rose +0.2%. Weak car demand was blamed. Oil rose
on fears that Hurricane Ivan may disrupt oil production in the Gulf. The current
account rose to a record 166.18 billion in the second quarter.
LSI Logic
(
LSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its Q3 outlook.
LSI is down 9%. Office Depot
(
ODP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned. The recent hurricanes were
blamed, in part, as some stores in Florida were shut down for several days.
Kroger reported a 25% drop in profit and warned.
McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) boosted its dividend
by 38%, from 40 cents to 55 cents.
So far this year, there have been 5600 M&A deals for a total of $538
billion. In 2003, there were 7582 deals worth $535 billion.
Manpower
(
MAN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) says Q4 hiring should be on par with the past two
quarters, with manufacturing the strongest sector.
OPEC meets tomorrow in Vienna, and is
expected to increase their production quote by 1 million bpd to 27 million bpd.
Equity funds received $2.9 billion in new cash
during the first 7 days of September; this compares with $3.5 billion for all of
August.
In a Merrill Lynch survey of 290 fund managers,
66% said they thought George Bush would win the November election; just a
month ago a slim majority expected a Kerry win.
Before the open tomorrow, Best Buy
(
BBY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is scheduled to report; the consensus is 0.51.
After the close, Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat
by a penny; revenues were $2.21 billion vs. the $2.23 billion consensus. The
stock traded up after hours. Xilinx
(
XLNX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lowered Q2 guidance,
saying revenue will be down 5-7%, and that margins will be 64%, down from 65%.
The stock traded lower after hours.
| Dow | +3.40 | 10318.16 |
| S&P 500 | +2.49 | 1128.31 |
| Nasdaq | +5.02 | 1915.40 |
Strong today were: Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.74%,
Telecom
(
XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.96%, Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.75%.
Weak were: REITs
(
RMS.X.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.36%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.44%, Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.37%.
10-year Notes were +020 at 113 215.
The dollar
was -0.19 at 88.36
Gold was +3.40 at 406.40
Crude Oil was +0.53 at 44.40
Volume was 1.2 billion
on the NYSE and 1.49 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1612 | Up Vol 627 |
| Declining | 1697 | Down Vol 561 |
| Ratio | 1.05 | 1.11 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1421 | Up Vol 798 |
| Declining | 1626 | Down Vol 662 |
| Ratio | 1.14 | 1.20 |
Stocks in the News
Taser
(
TASR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
received orders for over $1 million.
Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reports after the close;
analysts are looking for 0.09. Seasonally, this is the weakest quarter for
Oracle.
Electronic Data Services
(
EDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). General
Motors will seek bidders for $3 billion in services currently offered by EDS.
Cardinal Health
(
CAH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will delay ’04
results, restate prior results and warned for the first half of the fiscal year.
KMart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). UBS raised its price
target to $101 from $85. KMRT rose 4% today.
Flextronics
(
FLEX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded at
Credit Suisse.
Shaw Group
(
SGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) won a $250 million
Army contract from the Army Corp of Engineers to repair damage from Hurricane
Ivan.
Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Morgan Stanley
downgraded the stock.
Brice Wightman