Stocks To Open Slightly Higher
Stocks appear set to
open slightly higher on GDP report Friday.
US Q1 GDP is up 5.8%, led by inventories. The
U.S. economy grew at a 5.8% annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the
fastest growth in almost two years.
Goldman Sachs
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was upgraded at Merrill Lynch to a buy from neutral. Merrill says
Goldman should be shielded somewhat from possible litigation facing broker/dealers
due to its lack of broad private client business.
Applied Biosystems
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company to market perform. Goldman Sachs downgraded it to market perform from market
outperform.
US Steel
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reported a loss and announced a follow-on offering. The company reported a
Q1 pro forma operating loss of $0.90, $0.10 worse than the Multex consensus of
$0.80. Revenues fell 8.3% year-to-year to $1.43 billion.
PeopleSoft
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was upgraded at WR Hambrecht. Hambrecht upgraded the company to market perform
from market under perform based on valuation.
Celgene
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for myeloma and certain leprosy conditions. If approved, Celgene will have
marketing authorization for all EU states.
Viacom
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was downgraded at UBS. UBS Warburg downgraded the company to buy
from strong buy due to valuation. Warburg believes that further appreciation is
dependent on an improvement in advertising.
Microchip
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was upgraded by Merrill Lynch. Merrill upgraded the company to near-term
strong buy from buy with a $55 price target. Merrill noted valuation, market
share gains and high margins for the upgrade.
JDS Uniphase
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was downgraded at Merrill Lynch. Merrill downgrades from strong buy to long term
buy. Merrill says they are not forecasting profitability for many quarters and
visibility remains low.
Veeco Instruments
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Multex consensus.
UBS downgraded while Prudential upgraded Disney
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PowerRating). UBS Warburg downgraded the company to hold from buy, citing a
lack of visibility at the ABC unit and limited upside given discounted cash flow
valuation of $27. Prudential upgraded DIS to buy from hold and upped the target
to $30 from $22. Prudential noted improvement in cyclical business, in
particular theme parks.
Verisign
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was downgraded by multiple investment banks. The company was downgraded from
attractive to unattractive at Bear Stearns and was also downgraded by Lehman,
CSFB, Wachovia and JP Morgan.