This Restaurant Chain Earned Three Upgrades
Stocks
are higher after an early sell-off. Darden
Restaurants
(
DRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) upped its quarterly forecasts after a rosier quarter.
The company now expects earnings to reach 45 cents per share with its Olive
Garden same-store sales rising 4% and a turnaround in its struggling Red Lobster
chain in the works. The news was followed by three upgrades from Wachovia,
Thomas Weisel and Raymond James.
New home sales slipped 1.7% to
a seasonally adjusted 1.106 million from previous forecasts of 1.125 million.
Weekly Initial claims rose by another 10K, strengthening the argument of a
jobless recovery. According to the World Health Organization, scientists are
just weeks away from a human vaccine for the bird flu that has caused havoc in
the poultry industry.
The dollar peaked at a
one-month high against the euro at $1.2427 on a possible ECB rate cut.
| Dow | -22.74 |
10579.32 |
| S&P 500 |
+0.45 | 1144.14 |
| Nasdaq | +6.43 | 2029.41 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.60%, Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.24%,
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.03%, Hardware
(
GHA.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.97%.
Weak today are Chemical
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.69%, and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.46%,
Economic news releases included
initial claims that rose by 10k to 350k, Durable orders also fell by 1.8%. New
home sales also was lower-than-expected at 1.106 million units and with the
Help-Wanted index that fell a point to 38.
10-year Notes are +65
at 114 300
The dollar
is +0.41 at 87.73
Gold is -3.50 at 392.70
Crude Oil is -0.08 at
35.60
The euro
is -0.62 at 124.29
Volume is 600,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 820,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1783 | Up Vol 327 |
| Declining | 1298 | Down Vol 242 |
| Ratio | 1.40 | 1.34 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1616 | Up Vol 534 |
| Declining | 1336 | Dow Vol 222 |
| Ratio | 2.22 | 2.41 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Hewlett Packard [HPQ|HPQ],
+1.82% at 23.17, Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.60% at 26.78, Caterpillar [CAT|CAT]
+1.09% at 78.06, and Home Depot [HD|HD],
+0.92% at 28.11.
Stocks in the news:
J.C. Penney
(
JCP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a loss
of $928 million on revenue of $17.79 billion, with earnings from continuing
operations up 43%. For the first quarter, JCP expects earnings to exceed 9 cents
a share.
Pension company Calpers says it has
lost confidence in the strategic vision and leadership of Disney’s
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Eisner and its Disney holdings have dropped 23% over the last 5 years.
Men’s Wearhouse
(
MW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings that rose to $20.8 million on revenue of $422.7 million The company
expects first quarter earnings to be $1.63 a share with sales at $1.51.
Calpine
(
CPN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
fourth-quarter earnings of $119.6 million on a loss of $25.2 million, with
revenue at $1.92 billion.
Decode Genetics
(
DCGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on
the news of a drug development alliance with Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). DCGN will
receive royalties on sales of drugs and diagnostics, with clinical development
costs to be shared.