Two Companies Hurt By Pentagon Cut
Stocks
are lower on light trading. The
US Defense Department is canceling the multibillion-dollar RAH-66 Comanche
helicopter program being developed by United Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) and
Boeing
(
BA |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating) said the IRS audit of its 2001
and 2002 tax returns will not have a material adverse effect on the company.
Citigroup
(
C |
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News |
PowerRating) will acquire South Korea’s sixth-largest bank, KorAm Bank
(
KORMY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $2.7 billion in cash. With its 36.6% stake in KorAm, Citigroup
will become the first foreign bank to buy a South Korean bank. The offer
represents a 6.7% premium over KORMY’s last 30 trading days. Qualcomm
(
QCOM |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating)
raised its earnings forecast on strong demand for wireless chip technology. The
chip maker now expects to sell 37 million handsets instead of 32 million, with
earnings of 48 cents per share on revenue of $1.24 billion. Fed Chairman Alan
Greenspan said US consumers are generally in good financial shape, able to carry
more debt comfortably because of rising home prices.
| Dow | -39.33 |
10579.56 |
| S&P 500 |
-4.46 | 1139.44 |
| Nasdaq | -26.59 |
2011.36 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Oil
(
OIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.34%, Insurance
(
IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.24%,
Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.11%, and Utilities
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.09%.
Weak today are Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.99%, and Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.81%,
No Economic news releases
today.
10-year Notes are +45 at
114 195
The dollar
is -0.42 at 86.98
Gold is +1.90 at 400.00
Crude oil is +0.22 at
34.48
The euro
is -1.83 at 125.07
Volume is 580,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 890,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1127 | Up Vol 434 |
| Declining | 1988 | Down Vol 224 |
| Ratio | 1.74 | 1.95 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 956 | Up Vol 507 |
| Declining | 2084 | Dow Vol 424 |
| Ratio | 2.26 | 1.20 |
Top Dow stocks are:
McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+2.22% at 27.79; Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.68% at 56.28; Alcoa [AA|AA]
+1.39% at 37.36; and ExxonMobil [XOM|XOM],
+0.82% at 42.31.
Stocks in the news:
Leather goods retailer Coach
(
COH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
raised its fiscal 2004 earnings forecast on stronger-than-expected Spring sales.
It expects sales to reach $300 million with earnings around 26 cents. Full year
earnings are expected to reach $1.24 a share on $1.3 billion of revenue.
Retailer Lowe’s
(
LOW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a
28% rise in net income with revenue also up 20%. Earnings came in at 51 cents a
share, 2 cents above consensus with revenue of $7.25 billion. Same-store sales
rose 7.3%, lower than the previous quarter’s +12.4%.
Utility TXU
(
TXU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) replaced Eric
Nye with John Wilder as CEO and president until at least May 2005. Prudential
Securities upgraded the stock before the announcement.