The markets rallied as bellwether stocks reported
earnings late yesterday and today that were not too
terrible, as the NASDAQ moved back over the 1900 mark.
The NASDAQ, which rallied after 10:30 AM, had a heavy
trading volume of over 1.908 billion shares, while
the NYSE had a volume of over 1.089 billion shares
traded. Gainers included: 3Com, Agere Systems, Amazon,
AMD, Analog Devices, AOL Time Warner, Applied Materials,
Applied Micro Circuits, Ariba, AT&T, AT&T
Liberty, Bea Systems, Broadcom, Ciena, Citigroup,
Compaq, Corning, Corvis Corp, Dell, eBay, eLoyalty,
Ericsson, E*Trade Group, Gateway, Handspring, Hewlett
Packard, Home Depot, i2 Technologies, Intel, JDS Uniphase,
Juniper Networks, Keithley Instruments, Kohl's, Lam
Research, Lucent Technologies, Micron Tech, Microsoft,
Network Appliance, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Oracle,
PMC-Sierra, Pre-Paid Legal, Qualcomm, Rambus, Redback
Networks, Research in Motion, RF Micro Devices, Schering-Plough,
SCI Systems, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, Sycamore
Networks, Texas Instruments, Tyco International, Veritas
Software, Wipro Ltd, Worldcom, and Yahoo!
MAIN
REASONS FOR ACTIVITY
WEEKEND NEWS: Warren Buffett, the investment guru
and head of Berkshire Hathaway, now controls 6.98%
of specialty finance company Laser Mortgage Management,
according to SEC filings Friday.
WEEKEND NEWS: Black Hawk Gaming & Development
Co., confirmed Friday that it has received a second
offer of acquisition.
WEEKEND NEWS: Boeing Company announced on Friday
that it has signed a co-operative agreement with
the Russian Space Agency that includes the joint
development and marketing of new jet aircraft.
Boeing also announced that, it is in final stages
to completing a $571.1 million deal with the US
Air Force to make 10 Aircrafts.
WEEKEND NEWS: Merrill Lynch announced Friday that
it is considering selective job cuts.
WEEKEND NEWS: WebMethods is expected to announce
customer care systems deal with number 2 US auto
maker Ford Motor Co. by Monday.
WEEKEND NEWS: US Business Inventories dropped
a bigger-than-expected 0.2% in February, and the
January inventory strong gains were revised downward
to 0.1%. Retailers inventories dropped the most
with 0.4%, followed by Wholesalers who saw a drop
of 0.1%. Total Business Sales dropped 0.3% from
January levels. The Inventory to Sales Ratio held
steady at 1.37.
US Chain Store Sales grew a weak 1.7% in March
due to poor weather and the slowing economy. Apparel,
Department Stores, and Footwear stores posted
negative growth.
US Producer Price Index (PPI), a good measure
of producer inflation, dropped 0.1% in March.
The Core PPI, which excludes the volatile energy
and food sectors, rose 0.1%.
US Jobless claims for week ending April 7th. rose
9,000 to 392,000, while the 4-week moving average
rose to 381,000.
US Retail Sales dropped 0.2% in March, while the
February data was revised upward to a no change,
instead of the previous loss of 0.2%. Durable
sales accounted for most of the drop. Visit our
Federal Reserve Monetary
Policy Analysis page to read more. Also, visit
our expanded message boards to discuss this topic
or any other business topic by clicking here.
UPDATE!
UPDATE!! UPDATE!!!: The price of our Business
Operations listed for sale on BizBuySell.Com
have been reduced. We are a family run operation
that owns this web portal, the UK & Ireland,
and the Canadian portals. We also own over 70
other domain names. To view the domain names,
click here. Please
pass the word around about this announcement.
We will miss you all. We can be contacted by visiting
our Contact page.
Research
in Motion gained 28.29% after reporting encouraging
financial data yesterday. Research in Motion was
also upgraded by UBS Warburg and JP Morgan Chase
& Co.
Retail
stocks closed lower due to the discouraging sales
data reported today.
Chip
equipment maker Lam Research gained 13.96% despite
reporting fiscal Q3 figures yesterday that were
below expectations.
Yahoo!
gained 6.94% after reporting fiscal Q1 earnings
that beat estimates yesterday. Yahoo! also lifted
the Internet sector.
Juniper
Networks gained 17.82% after reporting fiscal
Q1 earnings that met estimates. Juniper's revenue
rose 420%. Juniper however, warned for full year
2001.
Network
Appliance gained 0.72% despite issuing an earnings
warning yesterday.
Nortel
Networks gained 14.64% after financial news TV
station CNBC reported that Nortel's customers
have reduced their inventory.
Redback
Networks had strong gains today after reporting
fiscal Q1 losses that were below estimates yesterday.
Bea
Systems gained 1.40% despite a Salomon Smith Barney
downgrade to an "outperform" recommendation.
Analog
Devices gained 8.64% despite lowering its earnings
guidance.
AFTER
CLOSE: Internet advertising company, DoubleClick
is extending its losses in after hours despite
reporting fiscal Q1 losses of 8 cents a share,
1 cent a share less losses than First Call estimates.
DoubleClick warned that it will have a sharp loss
in 2001 - which is opposite the profit Wall Street
was expecting.
AFTER
CLOSE: Chip designer Rambus reported fiscal Q2
earnings of 8 cents a share, 3 cents a share short
of First Call estimates. Rambus' revenues almost
doubled to $31.2 million.
AFTER
CLOSE: Handheld device maker, Handspring is extending
its gains in after hours trading after reporting
fiscal Q3 losses of 6 cents a share, in line with
First Call estimates. Handsprings revenue rose
a whopping 261%.
FORECAST
IS UP: Our First and Second quarters of year 2001
is now up. Don't get blinded in these uncertain
times, take advantage of the information by visiting
our Quarterly forecasts
page.
NEW
SERVICE: Now that we have our United Kingdom and
Ireland portal BusinessJeeves
UK & Ireland., and our Canadian (English)
portal BusinessJeeves
Canada up and running. We are confident, the
quality of our content will keep you coming back.
JOIN
THE DISCUSSIONS: Due to the immense popularity
this column has received recently, and the willingness
of our guests to communicate with each other,
we have expanded our message boards so as to serve
you better. Please check out (and post on) our
NEW expanded message boards here.
PICKS FOR THE NEXT MARKET DAY
REASONS
BEHIND THE PICKS
We think next week will be a strong week as this
one, if not better. Then again, there is always
that surprise.
STOCKS TO WATCH NEXT MARKET DAY: Retail blue chip
stocks will do well tomorrow.
The markets closed mixed as the Dow closed lower due
to profit taking, while the NASDAQ rallied in anticipation
of important earnings reports after the close. The
NASDAQ, which was positive all day, had a very heavy
trading volume of over
