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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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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, ATI Technologies
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, Maxim
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,
Broadcom

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and Nvidia
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.

Research in Motion
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beat by 0.06 but was light on revenues
(although revenues rose 92%). RIMM guided lower for Q1.

Siebel Systems
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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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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
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+2.10%   Oil
Services

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+1.98%     Oil
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+1.48%  

Weak sectors were:  Internet
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-1.02%   
Homebuilders

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-1.06%     Retail
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-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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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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to overweight.

Forest Labs
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cut their Q4 view, now seeing 0.40 vs. 0.52.

AIG was downgraded at UBS.

Halliburton
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resolved its billing dispute with the Army.

Autodesk
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raised profit and revenue targets for 2006. By
contrast, ten other software companies have warned.

Brice Wightman