Wireless War, Plus, The Latest Investigation
Stocks
are lower on disappointing economic numbers.
Consumer Sentiment was the topic of the day, falling hard to 93.1 from 103.8 a
month ago. The US trade deficit widened by 11% despite a weakened dollar, with
higher crude oil prices having a large impact. Imports peaked in December to
$132.8 billion.
ImClone
(
IMCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received FDA approval for its Erbitux
drug for the treatment of colon cancer. IMCL’s stock was halted minutes before the news
yesterday,
sending the stock down 33%. It is up 31% at $45 today. The SEC and regulators at
the NASD will review trading in ImClone just before the halt.
NTT DoCoMo
(
DCM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which
already holds a 16% stake in AT&T Wireless
(
AWE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped out of the
bidding contest to acquire AT&T Wireless, due to valuation issues. Cingular
(
SBC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Nextel
(
NXTP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Vodafone
(
VOD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are the remaining
contenders.
| Dow | -75.56 |
10618.51 |
| S&P 500 |
-7.89 | 1144.43 |
| Nasdaq | -22.56 |
2051.35 |
The day’s leading sector is
Healthcare
(
HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.09%.
Weak today are Disk Drives
(
DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.29%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -2.17%, and Airlines
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – 1.66%.
Economic news releases included
a much wider trade deficit of $42.5 billion. Exports were up by 0.6%. Imports
rose by 0.7%.
10-year Notes are +110
at 114 260
The dollar
is +0.16 at 85.63
Gold is -3.50 at 41070
Crude Oil is +0.72 at
34.10
The euro
is +0.13 at 127.95
Volume is 704,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,011,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1145 | Up Vol 182 |
| Declining | 1976 | Down Vol 455 |
| Ratio | 1.74 | 1.12 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 996 | Up Vol 271 |
| Declining | 1951 | Dow Vol 719 |
| Ratio | 1.94 | 2.60 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Hewlett Packard [HPQ|HPQ],
+1.12% at 23.18, Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +.42% at 48.58, Citigroup [C|C]
+0.24% at 48.59, and IBM [IBM|IBM],
+0.17% at 99.41, .
Stocks in the news:
Grocery chain Safeway
(
SWY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported a loss of $1.57 a share or $695.9 million on revenue of $11 billion,
attributing $102.9 million of the loss to the labor strike.
Analog Devices
(
ADI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
better-than-expected first quarter numbers with higher revenue $605.4 million,
earning 30 cents oer share. Merrill Lynch and Deutsche upgraded the stock on
the news.
McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) decided not to renew
Kobe Bryant’s contract, turning instead to Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming who edged
out Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal in fan balloting. His contract starts in
Sunday’s NBA All-Star game.
Advanced Energy
(
AEIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted
fourth-quarter earnings of loss of $2.4 million on revenue of $74.7 million. It
now expects next-quarter revenue to rise 30%; JP Morgan raised 2004 and 2005
revenue forecasts but did not upgrade AEIS.