Stock Slammed Ahead Of FDA Meeting…
Stocks were
higher Friday after a strong earnings report from GE.
General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that rose 3% to $3.92 billion,
with revenue up at $37 billion. Both numbers beat analysts expectations. Nine of
11 businesses showed double-digit gains with orders growing at a 13% rate. The
company raised the low end of FY 04 forecasts by a penny to $1.55 to $1.60 a
share. Oil prices remained strong, hovering near the $40 level. CEO Jeff Immelt
call the US economy ‘the best we’ve seen in years.’
Abbott Labs
(
ABT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings on higher sales of its Humira
drug with earnings of $634.3 million, and revenue up 14% to $4.7 billion. FY EPS
is expected to reach $2.24 a share; revenue for Q3 was guided down to $0.52 a
share. ABT is seeking approval to market its prostate cancer drug.
Dana
(
DCN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) sold its
replacement parts business to Cypress group for $1.1 billion; that unit had 2003
net sales of $2 billion. The deal is expected to close by the end of the
third-quarter.
Allergan
(
AGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell
3.7% prior to an FDA meeting on Monday which could determine whether the
company’s psoriasis drug Tazoral gets approved. AGN closed at 85.18, down 3.27.
| Dow | +31.73 | 10202.66 |
| S&P 500 | +2.23 | 1110.40 |
| Nasdaq | 6.76 | 1941.32 |
Strong today were: Disk
Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.37%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.84%, Techs
(
TXX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.07%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.28%.
Weak today were: Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.55%; Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.38%; Banks
(
BKX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.10.
Economic news release today
include wholesale inventories that jumped up 1.2%.
10-year Notes were +30
at 110 185
The dollar
was -0.14 at 87.40
Gold was +1.70 at 407.10
Crude Oil was -0.43 at
39.96
Volume was 1.18 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.38 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 2043 | Up Vol 733 |
| Declining | 1191 | Down Vol 435 |
| Ratio | 1.71 | 1.68 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1763 | Up Vol 955 |
| Declining | 1285 | Down Vol 383 |
| Ratio | 1.37 | 2.49 |
Stocks in the news:
SAP
(
SAP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after the company gave an early preview of Q2 earnings numbers. The company
said they are expecting to report earnings of $2.2 billion with software revenue
up 15% to $612.8 million.
SuperGen
(
SUPG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose after it
reported positive clinical trial results for treatment of MDS patients.
3COM
(
COMS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded by
Piper Jaffray, which cited concerns about the departure of its VP and believe it
may be earnings related.
Unisys
(
UIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) sank after lowering
Q2 earnings forecasts and now expects EPS of 5 cents a share on revenue of $1.38
billion.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com