Welcome To Earnings Season–Here’s The First Dow Component To Report
Blue chips rallied for a third straight day on lower
oil prices and a chip upgrade. Oil was lower for a third day in a
row. Crude inventories rose a more-than-expected 2.4 million barrels, but gas
inventories fell more than expected, down 2.1 million barrels. For the year, the
Dow is off 2.8% while the Nasdaq is off 8.2%.
After the bell, Alcoa
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AA |
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PowerRating) reported a solid quarter, beating by a
penny. Net income was $349 million; revenues were up 12.5% from a year ago but
missed estimates by a very small margin..
Merrill Lynch upgraded several semiconductor stocks, including Altera
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ALTR |
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PowerRating), ATI Technologies
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ATYT |
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PowerRating), Maxim
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PowerRating),
Broadcom
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BRCM |
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PowerRating) and Nvidia
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NVDA |
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PowerRating).
Research in Motion
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PowerRating) beat by 0.06 but was light on revenues
(although revenues rose 92%). RIMM guided lower for Q1.
Siebel Systems
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PowerRating) guided lower for Q1, seeing revenues of
$297-$300 million vs the Reuters consensus of $336 million. The stock was
downgraded to underperform at Needham.
Monsanto
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PowerRating) beat estimates by 0.06 and guided in-line.
MCI rejected a sweetened offer from Qwest.
The SEC voted to expand the trade-through rule to the Nasdaq.
After the close, look for Alcoa to report; estimates are 0.39. Look for the
effect of higher raw materials costs. Alcoa marks the official start of the
earnings season. A Thomson Financial poll indicated that S&P 500 members are
expected to see average Q1 earnings growth of 8.2%; this compare with growth of
19.7% in Q4.
A NYSE seat sold for $1.615 million today–up from the last sale on March 30
at $1.55 million. Word is the exchange is thinking about becoming a for-profit
institution, which could be a precursor to an IPO–which might then make NYSE
seats even more valuable. Separately, the NYSE is electing a new board,
including a new chairman.
Strong sectors were: Biotech
(
$BTK.X |
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PowerRating) +2.10% Oil
Services
(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating) +1.98% Oil
(
$XOI.X$ |
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PowerRating)
+1.48%
Weak sectors were: Internet
(
$IIX.X |
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PowerRating) -1.02%
Homebuilders
(
$HGX.X |
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PowerRating) -1.06% Retail
(
$RLX.X |
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PowerRating) -0.87%
Dow | +27.27 | 10,485.73 |
Nasdaq | +0.32 | 1999.00 |
S&P 500 | +2.66 | 1184.05 |
The dollar was +0.02 at
84.76
Crude Oil was -0.15 at
55.89
Gold was +1.20 at 426.10
ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.76 billion on the NYSE and 1.78
billion on the Nasdaq
Market breadth was positive.
NYSE | Issues | |
Advancing | 1986 | Up Vol 905 |
Declining | 1265 | Down Vol 675 |
1.56 | 1.34 | |
Nasdaq |
||
Advancing | 1612 | Up Vol 629 |
Declining | 1472 | Down Vol 929 |
1.09 | 1.47 |
Stocks in the News
Anheuser Busch
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BUD |
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PowerRating) guided lower and was downgraded to sell at
Legg Mason. Sales slipped in Q1.
Morgan Stanley cut it rating on steel stocks and raised Pfizer
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PFE |
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PowerRating)
to overweight.
Forest Labs
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PowerRating) cut their Q4 view, now seeing 0.40 vs. 0.52.
AIG was downgraded at UBS.
Halliburton
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PowerRating) resolved its billing dispute with the Army.
Autodesk
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PowerRating) raised profit and revenue targets for 2006. By
contrast, ten other software companies have warned.
Brice Wightman