Up Over 8% On Nearly Doubled Earnings!
Stocks are higher on better-than-expected earnings reports.
Wholesale prices jumped 0.5% from rising food prices while weekly initial claims
only fell by 9,000 to 353,000. eBay
(
EBAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings that almost doubled to $200.1 million with revenue
up to $756.2 million. EBAY upped its full year revenue forecast to $3.15 billion
with profits of $1.13 a share.
Drug maker Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted quarterly profits that fell to $1.62 billion, beating consensus by a
penny with sales flat at $5.6 billion. Sales of its Fosamax fell 4% to $759
million while Zocor sales rose 10% to $1.3 billion.
KLA Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted a
profit of $66 million with revenue up at $390 million but warned that orders may
drop 15% for this quarter.
| Dow | +121.21 |
10438.32 |
| S&P 500 |
+12.782 |
1136.89 |
| Nasdaq | +28.54 |
2024.11 |
The day’s leading sectors are Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.86%, Internet
(
ECM.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +3.16%, Oil
Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.51%, Retail
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.08%.
Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.05%.
Economic news releases today
included PPI up 0.5%, but PPI excluding food and energy costs was up 0.2%.
Initial claims rose to 353,000.
10-year Notes are +60 at
111 050
The dollar
is -0.12 at 91.30
Gold is +1.30 at 392.70
Crude Oil is +0.59 at
36.32
Volume is 770,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 978,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
2263 | Up Vol 593 |
| Declining | 854 | Down Vol 161 |
| Ratio | 2.65 | 3.68 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
1985 | Up Vol 690 |
| Declining |
1002 | Down Vol 258 |
| Ratio | 1.98 | 2.67 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +5.29% at
33.43, Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +4.18% at 84.41 Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+3.33% at 42.20, 3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.95% at 86.36.
Stocks in the news:
KLA Tencor
(
KLAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted a profit of $66 million with revenue up at $390 million but warned that
orders may drop 15% for this quarter.
Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings of $412 million with revenue rising 34% to $6.47 billion, well ahead of
consensus.
JetBlue
(
JBLU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings
of $15.2 million with operating revenue up 33.1% at $289 million despite
seasonal sluggishness in its East-West markets.
Yum Brands
(
YUM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said its
first-quarter profit rose 21% to $142 million with revenue at $1.97 billion. The
company also upped its 2004 earnings forecasts to $2.32 a share.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com