Stocks Appear Set To Open Down

Stocks appear set to open lower

Friday, in the midst of more warnings and key economic reports.

The Unemployment Rate rose to 4.5% in
June — up 0.1 percentage point from May.

Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded
Brocade Communications
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from a Buy to Hold.

Merrill Lynch lowered their near-term
rating on EMC
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from Buy to Neutral.

McData’s
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rating at Merrill
Lynch was lowered from Near Term Buy to Accumulate.

Radio Shack
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reported that
same-store sales increased 4% in June for stores open for at least one year.
The company said the growth can be attributed to the increased sales in wireless
equipment. Also, RSH announced that it was buying back Microsoft’s
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25% preferred minority stake in Radio Shack.com.

Subject to the approval of the
Department of Justice, International Paper
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said the company has signed
an amendment to the purchase agreement for the sale of Masonite to Premdor
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.

NEC
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announced the
company will be selling Broadband Friendly PCS.

Sangamo BioSciences
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reported the company has completed the acquisition of privately held Gendaq Ltd.

Hitachi
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unveiled a Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) chip that is so small it can be embedded into
money or any other documents. The chip is slightly larger than a grain of sand
and contains 128 bits of read-only memory (ROM).

EDS
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announced that it will
be laying off approximately 400 people at A.T. Kearney, which is a consulting
unit of EDS.

Starbucks
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announced the
company plans to rapidly expand their visibility in Australia. The company plans
to open more than 40 new stores there. SBUX also reported same-store sales rose 3% for stores which have been open for at least a year.

According to a report from
Reuters, Veritas Software
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said the company will meet previous
guidance for Q2 despite the EMC
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warnings.