The Google IPO: Searching For Answers

April 27, 2004
Brice Wightman

Stocks closed mixed after news of renewed violence in the Mid-East halted an
early advance. Positive
economic economic news sent the indices up early as
consumer
confidence index rose unexpectedly to 92.9 on optimism of an economic
recovery.Â This is the first rise in four months.
Explosions ripped through Damascus near the US and
Canadian embassies and fighting started again in Fallujah; US Marines have had
the city surrounded for weeks, and this news sent the indices lower.

United States
Steel
(
X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported its first quarterly profit in five quarters with income
at $58 million, beating estimates by 9 cents with revenue up 55% to $2.97
billion. Continued demand from China and a weak dollar contributed to the
positive numbers.

ImClone
(
IMCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
turned a profit of $62.7 million with revenue up 500% to $109.6 million, both
way ahead of analysts’ estimates. IMCL said its Erbitux sales were strong and
that they are awaiting approval from the EU for sale overseas. Verizon
(
VZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $1.2 billion with revenue at $17.14 from subscriber growth
at its Verizon wireless division. VZ also managed to add 345,000 DSL customer
for a total of 2.7 million subscribers.

So far, more that 3/4 of
companies reporting beat Wall Street forecasts, with only 10% missing.

Janus Capital settled
with the SEC and agreed to pay $100 million in fines and restitution and also
agreed to reduce its fees by $125 over a 5-year period.

Google is expected to
register an IPO this week and analysts are eager to look at the company’s
financials, which Google management has been tight-lipped about. Speculation
among industry observers is that the company’s profit at $150 million to $350
million on sales as high as $1 billion. Secrecy surrounds the private company —
investment bankers were banned from its headquarters last year and analysts
aren’t even sure how many employees the company has.

Dow	+33.43	10478.16
S&P 500	+2.62	1138.15
Nasdaq	-4.24	2032.53

Economic news releases today:Â
Consumer confidence index higher at 92.9.

10-year Notes were +095
at 111 025

The dollar
was -0.15 at 90.37

Gold was +1.39 at 398.21

Crude Oil was +0.56 at
37.53

Volume was
1,517,593,000
on the NYSE, and 1,928,101,000
on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was mixed.

NYSE	Issues
Advancing	1840	Up Vol 765
Declining	1462	Down Vol 729
Ratio	1.25	1.04
Nasdaq
Advancing	1574	Up Vol 623
Declining	1616	Down Vol 1278
Ratio	1.02	2.05

Stocks in the news:

Lockheed Martin
(
LMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that rose 16% to $291
million with revenue up 18% to $8.35 billion. The company expects full year
earnings to reach $2.55 a share with revenue at $34 billion.

BJ Services
(
BJS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said increased
drilling activity boosted its quarterly earnings to $73.3 million with revenue
up 21% to $647.1 million.

Immucor
(
BLUD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
received FDA approval for its blood transfusion system and was up 25% on the
news.

IBM increased its dividend 12.5%.
This is the first increase since 1996.

Transocean
(
RIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings
that fell to $22.7 million but ahead of estimates with revenue up at $652
million.

Brice Wightman

bricew@tradingmarkets.com

The Google IPO: Searching For Answers

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