This Company Raised Its Dividend 38%
Stocks are mixed Tuesday after worse-than-expected retail sales data and
downbeat outlooks from Office Depot, Kroger, and LSI Logic. For August, retail
sales fell -0.3%; ex-auto, they rose +0.2%. Weak car demand was blamed. Oil rose
on fears that Hurricane Ivan may disrupt oil production in the Gulf. The current
account rose to a record 166.18 billion in the second quarter.
LSI Logic
(
LSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its Q3 outlook.
LSI is down 9%. Office Deport
(
ODP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) warned. The recent hurricanes
were blamed, in part, as some stores in Florida were shut down for several days.
Kroger reported a 25% drop in profit and warned.
McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) boosted its dividend
by 38%, from 40 cents to 55 cents
Manpower
(
MAN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) says Q4 hiring should be on par with the past two
quarters, with manufacturing the strongest sector.
| Dow | +20.22 | 10334.75 |
| S&P 500 | +2.95 | 1128.77 |
| Nasdaq | +4.86 | 1915.24 |
Strong today are: Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.00%,
Pharmaceuticals
(
DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.02%, Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.58%.
Weak are: REITs
(
RMS.X.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.07%, Brokers
(
XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-0.47%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.41%.
10-year Notes are +020 at 113 215
The dollar
is -0.19 at 88.36
Gold is +3.40 at 406.40
Crude Oil is +1.27 at 44.08
Volume is 611 million on
the NYSE and 833 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1477 | Up Vol 292 |
| Declining | 1684 | Down Vol 271 |
| Ratio | 1.14 | 1.07 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1267 | Up Vol 435 |
| Declining | 1631 | Down Vol 345 |
| Ratio | 1.28 | 1.26 |
Stocks in the News
Taser
(
TASR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
received orders for over $1 million; the stock is trading up pre-open.
Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reports after the close;
analysts are looking for 0.09. Seasonally, this is the weakest quarter for
Oracle.
Electronic Data Services
(
EDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). General
Motors will seek bidders for $3 billion in services currently offered by EDS.
Cardinal Health
(
CAH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will delay ’04
results, restate prior results and warned for the first half of the fiscal year.
KMart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). UBS raised its price
target to $101 from $85.
Flextronics
(
FLEX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was upgraded at
Credit Suisse.
Shaw Group
(
SGR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) won a $250 million
Army contract from the Army Corp of Engineers to repair damage from Hurricane
Ivan.
Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Morgan Stanley
downgraded the stock.
Brice Wightman