Stocks Slump On Consumer Confidence, Greenspan Remarks

Stocks are lower Friday mid-session. U.S.
consumer sentiment fell in August–the University of Michigan’s Consumer
Sentiment Index was  89.1 vs the 92.5 consensus. Major indices fell further
after Greenspan said the central bank is paying close attention to rising stock
and home prices. Homebuilders slumped on the news.

Novell
(
NOVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by a penny; quarterly profit, however, fell on
higher tax and restructuring costs.
(Full
story)

Hewlett Packward
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it would reserve an additional $4
billion for stock buybacks.
(Full
story)

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it may settle some of the 5,000 pending Vioxx
related lawsuits.

Pixar
(
PIXR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is being investigated by the SEC over heavy returns
of the film “The Incredibles.”  PIXR cited the returns as the reason
the company missed Q2 estimates.

Petco
(
PETC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in-line and guided lower.  The company was
downgraded to neutral at JP Morgan.
(Full
story)

Strong sectors
are:  Gold 

(
XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.07%             

Weak sectors
are:   Semis

(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.07%     Biotech

(
BTK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.04%     Insurance 

(
IUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.02% 

Cardiac Science
(
DFIB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received permission to market its automatic
public access defibrillators in Japan.

Omnivision
(
OVTI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed by 0.02.

Business Week reports AtheroGenics
(
AGIX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) may be a buyout
candidate, according to John McCamant of the Medical Technology Stock Letter.

Renovis
(
RNVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said Phase III trials of Ren 1654 did not meet primary
endpoints and that it is discontinuing development.
(Full
story)

Seagate
(
STX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was downgraded to equalweight at Morgan Stanley.

Brice Wightman