SalesForce.com Reveals ‘Internal’ Guidance — And It’s Not Pretty
An early
rally faded Wednesday and the
indices closed on the lows for the day on stronger
volume. The Nasdaq made its lowest close of the year. Alan
Greenspan said the Fed would take a measured approach in raising interest rates
and said outsourcing would increase further and benefit U.S. living standards.
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
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PowerRating) announced plans to pay a special one-time $3 dividend
and buy back as much as $30 billion of its stock over the next 4 years. MSFT
also upped the annual dividend to 32 cents a share. MSFT has over $50 billion in
cash. Bill Gates own 1.12 billion shares; he has pledged to donate his
share of the dividend to charity. Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
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PowerRating) reported
earnings of 54 cents with sales at $3.469 billion. EK raised FY operating
earnings forecast to about $2.54 a share.
SalesForce.com
(
CRM |
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PowerRating)
fell 27% to 11.70. In an analyst meeting, the CFO lowered expectations for the
year and said the company had been using this internal guidance since February
but this was the first time it was publicly announced.
Ryland Group
(
RYL |
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PowerRating)
beat by 0.51. QualComm
(
QCOM |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.05 and guided higher.
eBay
(
EBAY |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.02, ex-items, but guided lower for Q3 and Q4; the
stock traded lower after hours. Affymetrix
(
AFFX |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.09 but
guided Q3 lower.
GM
(
GM |
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PowerRating)
reported earnings of $1.34 billion with sales at $49.15 billion. Just like
Ford
(
F |
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PowerRating), GM’s financing unit contributed to the majority of the
auto-maker’s earnings; further showing the fierce competition of the auto
industry. GM said its global market share fell 0.2% to 14.9% from a year ago. It
still expects FY earnings of $7 a share. Honeywell
(
HON |
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PowerRating) beat earnings by 4 cents at $361 million with revenue up 11% at $6.39
billion. The company raised FY EPS to $1.65 a share citing strong demand in all
of its units.
Dreamworks is planning
an IPO of its animation unit, which is responsible for films such as “Shrek 2.”
Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters.
| Dow | -102.94 | 10046.13 |
| S&P 500 | -14.79 | 1093.88 |
| Nasdaq | -42.70 | 1874 |
There were no green sectors
today.
Weak today were: BiotechsÂ
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -5.91%, Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -4.47%, Internet
(
GIN.X |
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News |
PowerRating)
-4.25%, and Airlines
(
XAL.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)Â -4.24%.
10-year Notes were -120
at 110 065
The dollar
was +0.73 at 88.44
Gold was -3.70 at 396.60
Crude Oil was +0.16 at
40.58
Volume was 1.67 billion
on the NYSE, and 2.1 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 727 | Up Vol 3271 |
| Declining | 2599 | Down Vol 1401 |
| Ratio | 3.57 | 2.33 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 749 | Up Vol 396 |
| Declining | 2330 | Down Vol 1689 |
| Ratio | 3.11 | 4.26 |
Stocks in the news:
JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
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PowerRating) reported earnings of $1.81
billion (excluding one-time charges) on revenue of $4.4 billion.
Merck
(
MRK |
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News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of $1.77 billion with
sales rising 9% to $6 billion. The company affirmed previous earnings forecasts
of $3.14 a share for FY 2004.
Colgate-Palmolive
(
CL |
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PowerRating) was lower after reporting
earnings of $373.9 million on sales of $2.572 billion.
BJ Services
(
BJS |
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PowerRating) reported a profit of $129.3
million a increased land drilling in US and Mexico. Revenue was up 21% to $658.7
million.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com