This Zacks Research Probably Confirms What You Already Know

Stocks are lower on a Ford profit warning.
Ford
(
F |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its earnings view and now sees
$1.25-1.50 for 2005. Bank of America cut its price target on the stock.

OPEC said they would raise production to 28.5 million barrels in May from the
current 25 million. Oil is now down six days in a row. The CFTC last week said
that speculative interest in crude was the highest in history. Gas has risen 19%
in the past 3 weeks.

Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said April same store sales would be flat to +2%.

JP Morgan said Seprecor’s
(
SEPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) sleeping drug Lunestra exceeded
expectations in its first week. Sanofi Aventis received approvable letter on
sleep drug Ambien CR, not approval. This should be a positive for SEPR.

NCR Corp.
(
NCR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) raised Q1 and 2005 guidance. The company now
expects 0.16 for Q1 and 1.35 -1.40 for 23005.

This week, 31 S&P 500 companies will report, including two Dow stocks. Here
are some highlights (including estimates):

Monday

Genentech
(
DNA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.25

Tuesday

Abbot Labs
(
ABT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.58

Wednesday

Advanced Micro Devices
(
AMD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.02

Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.24

Thursday

Southwest
(
LUV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.05

Sun Micro
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.00

Pepsi
(
PEP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.51

Friday

Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  1.02

General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)  0.37

Warren Buffett is talking to federal and state regulators regarding
transactions with AIG and General Re.

Lazard is planning an IPO in about three weeks. The company will offer
30.5 million shares between $25-$27 and will be listed on the NYSE under the
symbol LAZ.

In a Zacks study done for The Wall Street Journal, stocks with
the most ‘sell’ recommendations were shown to outperform those with ‘buy’ or
‘hold’ recommendations. According to the study, this relationship has been in
effect for several years, but has widened since 2000.

Strong sectors are: Utilities
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.02%   Biotech
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.66%  Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.33%  

Weak sectors are:  Transports
(
$TRANX.X$ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.83%
   Internet
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.01%  Semis
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.62%    

Stocks in the News

Fourth quarter profits at Circuit City
(
CC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell; the company
earned 0.43 vs. 0.46 a year earlier. 

XM Satellite Radio
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is teaming up with AOL in online radio
service that will deliver 200 channels to AOL members.

Korean Airlines is buying 10 Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 7E7 Dreamliners for $1.2
billion.

CNF Inc.
(
CNF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) guided higher for Q1.

Proctor & Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is boosting its dividend by 12% to 0.28
quarterly. IT is the 49th straight year of rising dividends.

Darden
(
DRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was the subject of a positive article in Barron’s.