RIMM Down Big After Hours–Here’s Why

Stocks were higher on good reports from two large
brokers.
Bear Stearns
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reported 2.61 vs a 2.14
estimate. This beat by 0.47. Revenue was $2.38 billion. Morgan Stanley
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reported 1.09 vs a 1.01 estimate. Revenue was $5.45 billion. This as
Wall street continues to shrink–automation is up, trading commissions are
dropping and the industry is becoming more of a commodity business

The Dow made a 3 1/2 year high; the last time we were at these levels was
June 2001. The Dow Transports hit a historic high. The Nasdaq hit 3 1/2 year
highs last week.

Trader talk: fund flows are strong, sentiment is improving, IPOs are closing the
year very strong and the M&A climate is improving.

The FDA issued a heart risk warning for Naproxen, marketed by Bayer AG as
Aleve
. This comes on the heels of a warning on Celebrex. Today,
Pfizer pointed to a National Institute of Health study that shows patients
taking Celebrex have no increased risks.

CSFB raised its target on Apple
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to $70. Intel
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was raised to overweight from equal weight at Lehman.

Lawyers who handled the Enron bankruptcy billed $780 million. The lead
attorney billed $5 million for 7000 hours of work.

IAC/Interactive
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will split off its travel unit, Expedia
and Hotels.com. Expedia generated $1.8 billion revenue for the 12 months ended
September 30. Barry Diller will be the controlling shareholder of both
companies.

After the close, Research in Motion
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beat by 0.03 and
guided Q1 higher; revenue was $365.9 vs $364 consensus. Blackberry shipments
were less than expected; the stock traded down after hours. Applied Signal
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missed by 0.07.

Strong sectors were: Airlines
(
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+2.82%, Oil Services

(
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+1.68%, Banks
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+1.38%.

Dow +100.12 10,761.72
S&P 500 +10.90 1205.55
Nasdaq +23.10 2,150.95

The dollar was +0.26 at
81.96

Crude Oil was flat at
45.78

Gold was -1.20 to 441.30

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.48 billion on the NYSE and
1.96 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was positive.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 2324 Up Vol 1057
Declining 1018 Down Vol 284
Ratio 2.18 3.72
Nasdaq
Advancing 1980 Up Vol 1342
Declining 1152 Down Vol 491
Ratio 1.71 2.73

Stocks in the News

Jabil Circuits
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beat estimates but offered a weaker outlook.

Encysive Pharmaceuticals
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said their blood pressure drug
was not effective at lower doses.

Silicon Storage
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said Q4 revenue would miss.

GTech
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warned for next quarter.

This Day in History

1913 First crossword puzzle

Brice Wightman