The Bright Spots For The Day
Stocks opened mixed
and were under
pressure all day, ahead of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan’s
testimony on Capitol Hill and more disappointing earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite closed lower 1.4%
and the Dow Jones Industrials fell 1.7% on moderate volume, as stocks drifted
lower for the session.
The bright spots of Tuesday’s trading
session were the major indexes closing off the lows of the day and people
beginning to receive their tax rebate checks.
Stocks moving up in the down day
included battered Waters Corp
(
WAT |
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PowerRating) which gained 10.4% after meeting Wall
Street’s lowered expectations for Q2, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.
The company reported EPS of 29 cent.
Omnicom Group
(
OMC |
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PowerRating) rose 5.5% on
Q2 earnings report which met analysts’ expectations. The advertising company
reported earnings of 81 cents.
Acxiom
(
ACXM |
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PowerRating) shares traded
higher 17.7% after J.P. Morgan raised the company’s rating to Buy from Long Term
Buy.
Openwave Systems
(
OPWV |
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PowerRating) tacked on
20.4% after the company announced earnings of 11 cents which beat analysts’
expectations by a penny.
Renaissancere Holdings
(
RNR |
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PowerRating) reported
an increase in Q2 operating income, the stock moved up 4.9%
Labor Management company Kronos
(
KRON |
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PowerRating)
gained 6.0% after the company reported strong Q3 numbers and was upgraded by
Needham & Co from Hold to Buy.
Sectors which ended in the green
included the Gold and Silver Index
(
$XAU.X |
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PowerRating) which gained 2.2%.
Losing in Tuesday’s trading was
Checkpoint Systems
(
CKP |
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PowerRating) which shed 18.6% after the company reported Q2
earnings of 19 cents a share falling short of analysts’ average estimates of 21
cents, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
ABB Limited
(
ABB |
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PowerRating) lost 17.4% as
the company announced it would be slashing its workforce by 12,000 jobs.
Lucent Technologies
(
LU |
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PowerRating) shares
fell 18.7% after reporting a loss for the quarter and announced the company
would be laying off an additional 15,000 to 20,000 employees in an effort to
become profitable in 2002.
Amazon COM
(
AMZN |
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PowerRating) slid 24.7%.
Epiq Systems
(
EPIQ |
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PowerRating) fell
10.7% after the company reported Q2 earnings of 14 cents which beat consensus
numbers of 13 cents, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.
Cirrus Logic
(
CRUS |
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PowerRating) dropped 23.4%
after the company reported Q1 and was downgraded from a Long Term Buy to a
Neutral by Pacific Growth Equities.
Sectors lagging in the session were the Biotechnology Index
(
$BTK.X |
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PowerRating) which fell
4.2%; the Transportation Index
(
$TRX.X |
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PowerRating)
which dropped 3.8% and the Oil Services Index
(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating) which slid 3.5%.