What Will This MU Report Do To The Market?
Stocks were
mixed Wednesday in choppy trading.
The QQQs closed right at their 50-EMA. After the close, Micron
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a loss of 0.04, 0.03 better than expected. Revenues were less than
expected, at $991.0 million versus the $1008.9 million consensus, but up 26%
year/year.
New homes surged 5.8% to 1.163
million units as the housing market continues to benefit from record low
interest rates. Durable orders also rose 2.5% with higher demand for aircraft
products. Soybeans futures have almost doubled since last August as farmers
started spreading seeds earlier than expected to take advantage of the boom in
that sector.
The EU commission handed
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) a record $611 million fine for monopoly abuse. The
ruling also demanded Microsoft to unbundle its Windows Media Player within 90
days and pass along its source code to its competitors. Microsoft vowed
to appeal, with its shares trading 1% higher today. Red Hat
(
RHAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported earnings of $5 million with revenue that jumped $37 million. Renewal
rates for its Linux products reached 90%.
Lattice Semi
(
LSCC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed by 0.05 but reaffirmed Q1 revenue growth of
10-13%. The stock traded up after hours. Tenet Healthcare
(
THC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reached an agreement with the Department of Justice in the ongoing
investigation; Tenet will pay $30.75 million. The stock traded up after hours.
Merix
(
MERX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.03, ex-items and beat on revenues; the stock
traded down after hours.
| Dow | -15.41 |
10048.23 |
| S&P 500 |
-2.63 | 1091.32 |
| Nasdaq | +7.68 |
1909.48 |
The day’s leading sectors were
Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.33%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 0.30%, and
Retail
(
RTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) + 0.27%.
Weak today were Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.05%, and Gold & Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.39% and
Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.25%.
Economic news releases today
included durable orders up 2.5%, better than forecast, and new home sales also up at 1163K.
10-year Notes were +90
at 116 055
The dollar
was +1.10 at 88.95
Gold was -1.61 at 416.59
Crude Oil was -0.42 at
37.01
Volume was
1,500,999,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,827,137,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1146 | Up Vol 445 |
| Declining | 2100 | Down Vol 1011 |
| Ratio | 1.83 |
2.27 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 1422 | Up Vol 1034 |
| Declining | 1689 | Down Vol 752 |
| Ratio | 1.18 |
1.37 |
Stocks in the news:
International Game Technology
(
IGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose after a bullish Deutsche Bank report. New Indian gaming contracts in
California may be good for another 25,000 slot machines, the report said. IGT
rose 2.71 to 44.17.
Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) won a $785 million service contract with the Dept.
of Veterans Affairs.
Teva Pharmaceuticals
(
TEVA |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Endo Pharmaceuticals
(
ENDP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received
FDA approval to market two generic versions of OxyContin.
Endo Pharmaceuticals secured 6 months as the only generic seller.
Reliance Steel
(
RS |
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PowerRating)
rose 3% after upping its earnings forecast by 100% to $0.80 cents on high metal
prices.
Cooper Tire & Rubber
(
CTB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 9% after announcing plans to sell its
Cooper-Standard Automotive Group which generated revenues of $1.66 billion in
2003.
Prudential upgraded Novell
(
NOVL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
citing the recent decline which has made the stock more attractive.