09:28 ET Opening Indication : S&P futures close approx. 5 pts below fair value. Nasdaq Pre-Market Indicator points to a 22 pt decline on the Nasdaq at the open.
09:21 ET Sirius Satellite (SIRI) 11 3/4: Morgan Stanley downgrades to NEUTRAL from OUTPERFORM.
09:18 ET iXL Enterprises (IIXL) 1 13/32: E-consulting company announces that several key investors purchased 15.9 mln restricted shares of iXL common stock.
09:16 ET Williams Cos (WMB) 43.55: Raises Q1 outlook to $0.65-$0.75 and is estimating recurring 2001 performance from $1.75-$1.95. The 15-cent increase from previous 2001 earnings guidance is primarily due to the expected Q1 improved performance in WMB energy trading activities and its natural gas exploration and production unit.
09:13 ET Gapping Up : Recent IPO Loudcloud (LDCL) climbs 6% in response to Goldman initial Rec. List rating. and $10 target (Goldman served as co-lead manager of company's IPO)... Concurrent (CCUR +5%) benefits from news of Comcast (CMCSK) volume purchase order... P.F. Chang's (PFCB +3%) raises Q1 guidance to $0.30-$0.31 from $0.29...Winstar (WCII +14%) climbs following intra-session announcement yesterday that company in talks on material transactions.
09:08 ET SAP AG (SAP) 27.00: Merrill Lynch downgrades to ACCUMULATE from BUY citing weak performance by ITWO and ORCL and belief that the IT spending pressures are spreading quickly from the US to Europe.
09:07 ET Siebel Systems (SEBL) 28.65: Trading down to 27 pre-market; hearing trading floor concerns that company will preannounce given warnings from other companies such as ITWO and ARBA that point to weakness in e-business applications sales.
09:05 ET PurchasePro.com (PPRO) 6 7/16: Wedbush Morgan initiates coverage with a SELL rating; believes PPROs December quarter benefited from aggressive accounting related to software swaps with a strategic partner. PurchasePro appears to have recognized revenues from software sales to a strategic partner, on a gross basis, and concurrently capitalized the offsetting (and larger) purchase of software from the same strategic partner directly into assets, serving to either overstate revenues or implied cash flow for the quarter.
09:01 ET Agile Software (AGIL) 10 33/64: Robinson Humphrey upgrades to OUTPERFORM from NEUTRAL in response to decision not to proceed with Ariba merger. Feels that AGIL's current stock price has no connection to company's underlying business, and has instead tied to the share ratio of the Ariba merger. While firm understands that AGIL has scheduled a 5ET conference call tonight, and that there may be some revision to near-term forward guidance, expects no change in long-term outlook. Firm's DCF analysis produces an initial price target of $22... AGIL shares trading at $8 3/8 in pre-market.
08:55 ET Viacom, Inc. (VIA.B) 41.74: Lehman Brothers continues to believe that Viacom is the best positioned to weather the current advertising drought; stock remains one of its top picks in the Entertainment sector; expects company to report Q1 results in-line with expectations.
08:55 ET Interliant (INIT) 1 7/32: CIBC World Markets downgrades to HOLD from BUY after company warned yesterday -- not clear company has necessary funds to achieve profitability.
08:52 ET Variagenics (VGNX) 4 3/8: CIBC World Markets initiates coverage with a STRONG BUY, calls company a leader in the field of pharmacogenomics, correlating genetic differences with response to drugs. Price target is $10.
08:48 ET Commerce One (CMRC) 7.85: Banc of America Sec. downgrades from BUY to MKT PERFORM. Says demand for procurement and marketplace infrastructure products continues to weaken, as demonstrated by lowered growth estimates by industry analysts and yesterday's pre-announcements from Ariba and Commerce One. Downgrade in light of a valuation range of $5 to $7 per share, negative sentiment, and an expected continuing stream of negative news.
08:48 ET Ligand Pharms (LGND) 9 7/32: Announced (after the close) that the European Commission approved authorization for Targretin capsules and has additionally applied to the European Agency to market Targretin 1% gel in the EU; based on these advances, Elan Corp (ELN) will pay Ligand $3.5 mln under the terms of its marketing and distribution agreement with LGND.
08:41 ET MicroStrategy (MSTR) 2 9/16: Warns of a Q1 loss in the $0.31-$0.37 range vs mean loss estimate of $0.30. Plans to cut workforce by approx. 600 employees, or one-third of total headcount; expects cost reductions to allow its core business to achieve profitability by the end of this year.
08:39 ET Inktomi (INKT) 6.22: Merrill Lynch analyst, Henry Blodget downgrades from ACCUM/BUY to NEUTRAL/ACCUM. Says in spite of plans to cut headcount by 25% and other cost saving measures, do not see profitability until June 2002. Long-term questions about the impact of lower bandwidth prices on caching demand, and execution risks in enterprise caching.
08:38 ET Polycom (PLCM) 11 9/16: -- Update -- Qwest Communications (Q) has selected Polycom's ViewStation group video communications system and ViaVideo desktop video communications appliance as one of its internal, company-wide IP video communications standards.
08:36 ET DTM Corporation (DTMC) 3 11/16: Agrees to be acquired by 3D Systems (TDSC) for $5.80 per share in cash.
08:35 ET Prudential Cuts PCs : Prudential analyst, Kimberly Alexy cuts estimates on PC makers to reflect view that there will be no meaningful snap back in demand in 2001. Compaq (CPQ) FY01 cut from $0.80 to $0.60, FY02 from $1.12 to $0.92. Gateway (GTW) FY01 from $0.48 to $0.23, FY02 from $1.35 to $0.80. Hewlett Packard (HWP) FY01 from $1.60 to $1.39, FY02 from $1.90 to $1.65. IBM (IBM) FY01 from $8.84 to $4.50, FY02 from $5.25 to $4.84. US demand remains weak across industry verticals and product lines. However, PC unit volumes still appear relatively stable. Hardware sales in Europe are beginning to soften.
08:35 ET Finisar Corp (FNSR) 7 7/8: Company announces that an affiliate of founder Frank H. Levinson purchased a total of 1.2 million FNSR shares in a series of open market transactions on March 29 and 30. Prior to these purchases, Levinson was the beneficial owner of approx. 41.1 mln FNSR shares or 22% of company's outstanding stock.
08:32 ET Transocean Sedco (RIG) 41.40: Prudential starting coverage of contract driller with a STRONG BUY rating and $65 target price; believes that RIG is poised to capitalize on improving offshore drilling market.
08:28 ET UBS Warburg Starts CLECs : Firm initiates coverage of McLeodUSA (MCLD) and Time Warner Telecom (TWTC) with STRONG BUY ratings and price targets of $21 and $58, respectively. Starts Universal Access (UAXS) with a BUY and $17 target. Firm assumes coverage of Allegiance Telecom (ALGX), Choice One Communications (CWON) with BUY ratings. Mpower (MPWR), Pac-West Telecomm (PACW), Winstar (WCII) XO Comms (XOXO) all get HOLD ratings.
08:28 ET Xybernaut (XYBR) 2.08: Announced that it has received an order from Federal Express for Xybernaut's mobile wearable computers for use in the FedEx Express Aircraft Operations Division. The initial order is valued at over $1 mln in this first stage of deployment, a substantial portion of which was shipped in Dec.
08:26 ET Opening Indications : S&P futures -5.0, or 6.7 pts below fair value; Nasdaq futures -15, or 28 pts below fair value. Seeing steady improvement in the futures over the past hour.
08:24 ET Best Buy (BBY) 36.80: Consumer electronics retailer reports Q4 net of $0.89 a share, 7 cents above Wall Street views. Raises 2002 earnings guidance to $2.15-$2.20 vs current mean estimate of $2.07.
08:23 ET Lehman on Telecom : Lehman Brothers says that with major capex construction phase behind, return on capital for bandwidth names should inflect solidly in 2001; sees AGCX, WCG, and IN as best positioned from both an upside/risk perspective; BRW and GX as attractive from a risk perspective; LVLT and TCM as having the most risk, and upside.
08:22 ET Ariba (ARBA) 6 23/32: Goldman Sachs downgrades to MKT PERFORM from MKT OUTPERFORM following earnings warning; says preannouncement not surprising but magnitude was. Firm reducing fiscal 2001 revenue est. to $432.6 mln from $730 mln and 2002 to $435 mln from $1.07 bln. On the bottom line, EPS cut to ($0.24) from $0.21 for 2001 and to $0.09 from $0.45 for 2002... ARBA shares trading at $5 1/2 in pre-market.
08:21 ET Safeway (SWY) 55.58: Goldman Sachs sees Safeway as poised for a near-term rally; cites reacceleration in operating momentum, increased investor appreciation of growth opportunities, and surprising share price weakness year-to-date; has price target of $65.
08:18 ET Sycamore Ntwks (SCMR) 9 1/32: Lehman downgrades stock two notches to MARKET PERFORM from Strong Buy; says bulk of cutback in service provider spending will occur in emerging carrier market, which is a large component of Sycamore's addressable market.
08:17 ET AOL Time Warner (AOL) 37.17: CSFB's Jamie Kiggen says AOL Time Warner can meet its guidance of $11 bln in EBITDA and $40+ bln in revenue, but probably not without a price increase in AOL's core online service (a likely event later in the year), and probably not if the economy slows further. Challenge will be in ramping revenues in the second half. AOL will justify a premium valuation to the traditional media group as it begins to translate its unique assets into revenue momentum, but stock is likely to stay in a $35-$45 range until visibility improves.
08:15 ET i2 Technologies (ITWO) 15 7/16: Salomon Smith Barney downgrades to OUTPERFORM from BUY based on expectations for a tough selling environment for the remainder of the yr. Lowers 2001 EPS est. by 26% to $0.25 and revenue by 5% to $1.56 bln; believes these estimates reflect a worst case scenario given visibility at this time... ITWO trading at $14 7/8 in pre-market.
08:12 ET Motient Corp (MTNT) 1 5/32: Rare Medium Group (RRRR) to agrees to provide Motient up to $50 mln in short-term financing by purchasing exchangeable notes of Motient.
08:08 ET Broadcom (BRCM) 26.95: Announces that Dell Computer (DELL) has begun shipping the industry's first servers with Broadcom embedded gigabit network connection on motherboard.
08:06 ET Radio One (ROIAK) 14.94: CSFB initiates coverage with a BUY rating and $19 target price.
08:05 ET Loudcloud (LDCL) 5 7/16: Goldman Sachs initiates coverage with a RECOMMENDED LIST rating and a $10 price target; says company's automation technology is the key to creating maximum value in the managed services market. Goldman was a lead underwriter on LDCL's recent IPO.
08:01 ET Concurrent (CCUR) 5 3/16: Comcast (CMCSK) signs strategic volume purchase agreement to purchase MediaHawk Broadband Video-On-Demand (VOD) systems from Concurrent.
08:01 ET Opening Indications : S&P futures -6.8, or 8.5 pts below fair value; Nasdaq futures -20.0, or 33 pts below fair value. Futures still pointing to a lower open, but seeing some slight improvement in the last half hour.
07:58 ET PSINet (PSIX) 3/16: Delays 10-K filing with the SEC. Also announces that it expects to receive a "going concern" notice from its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers. Cautions that financing efforts are likely to involve the company's reorganization under the federal bankruptcy code; likely that the common stock will have no value.
07:51 ET Good News : Hit by a wave of earnings warnings after the close yesterday. While no surprise names on the list of companies issuing preannouncements, magnitude of many of the expected shortfalls was numbing. On a more positive note, several companies actually increased or reaffirmed guidance for qtr and/or yr: New Focus (NUFO) reaffirms Q1 revenue guidance... Entergy Corp (ETR) expects Q1 earnings to top estimates by 10%-15%... R&G Financial (RGFC) sees Q1 EPS of $0.40 vs $0.37 mean... Xcel Energy (XEL) pegs FY01 of $2.30 vs $2.23 mean... Equity Marketing (EMAK) guides Q1 to $0.11-$0.15 from $0.08 mean.
07:38 ET Earnings Warnings : ARBA puts loss at $0.20 vs $0.05 profit expected by analysts... EPNY sees loss of approx. $0.40 vs ($0.09) mean... INKT expects loss of $0.23-$0.25 vs ($0.04) mean... ENTU pegs loss of $0.32-$0.34 vs $0.02 mean est... KRON sees EPS of $0.06-$0.08 vs $0.23 mean... BVSN sees red ink of $0.14-$0.16 vs $0.02 mean est... PLCM puts net at $0.16-$0.18 vs $0.19 mean... DCTM, RBAK, EGLS lower revenue guidance... Less visible names issuing warnings included HLIT, NATI, LNTE, RNBO, PLCM, INIT.
07:32 ET Opening Indications : S&P futures -9.3, or 11.0 pts below fair value; Nasdaq futures -22.5, or 35.5 pts below fair value. Futures remain in the red as the warnings continue to stream in; no surprise that the number of warnings is high, but the magnitude of some of the misses has been surprising.
07:29 ET Tanning Tech (TANN) 3 5/16: E-consulting company projects Q1 loss of approx. $0.11 vs $0.09 loss anticipated by analysts.
07:28 ET TEKELEC (TKLC) 17 5/16: Revises previously reported Q4 results to reflect Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by a service provider customer. Revenues reduced by $1.8 mln to $96.4 mln, while EPS cut by $0.04. to $0.23.... Company reaffirms full yr outlook of $0.85-$0.88 (mean $0.86).
07:20 ET Concord Comms (CCRD) 7 13/16: Lowers Q1 outlook to a loss of $0.18-$0.20 vs $0.06 profit expected by analysts.
07:18 ET Staples (SPLS) 14 9/16: Company's board of directors reaffirms its commitment to a plan that would exchange each share of Staples.com tracking stock for 0.4396 share of Staples common stock. To eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest, the board voted to allow members to rescind their personal stakes in Staples.com; CEO and COO to sell back their shares at the original price... Announcement follows Mar 23 WSJ article highlighting an expected windfall in profits to company executives from the repurchase of the online unit.
07:12 ET The Gap (GPS) 24.42: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway files document with the SEC disclosing an 8 mln share position in the retailer as of Feb. 14. Berkshire also disclosed a 4%, or 4.9 mln share, stake in utility GPU Inc (GPU).
07:09 ET Fair Value : This morning's fair value figures -- S&P 500 fair value: 1152.0, or +1.7 vs yesterday's close. Nasdaq 100 fair value: 1530, or +13 vs yesterday's close. Current indications: S&P 500 futures are -10.0, or 11.7 pts below fair value. Nasdaq 100 is -25, or 38 pts below fair value. Severity of earnings warnings from the likes of Ariba and Inktomi weighing on the market.
07:08 ET Plantronics (PLT) 17.10: Microsoft (MSFT) selects Plantronics PC headsets as the preferred and recommended speech recognition headsets for use with Microsoft Office XP.
07:07 ET P.F. Chang's (PFCB) 36 3/8: Expects to report Q1 earnings of $0.30-$0.31 a share vs $0.29 mean estimate. Issues revenue results for Q1: increased 41% to $72.4 mln; same-store sales increased 5.4%.
07:02 ET Entergy Corp (ETR) 38: Company expects Q1 operating earnings to exceed the high end of published estimates by 10%-15%. For the full yr, company expects EPS to be in the range of $3.00-$3.20, unchanged from previous guidance. Comments follow announcement yesterday of plans to terminate merger agreement with FPL Group (FPL).
06:57 ET ICN Pharm (ICN) 24.62: Company files 10-K reflecting an increase in reserves associated with previously disclosed Grand Jury Investigation and SEC litigation. The $9.25 mln in reserves are to cover the potential combined settlement liability and all other related costs.
06:52 ET Starwood Hotels (HOT) 34.20: Company's Board of Directors authorizes the repurchase of up to an additional $500 mln of HOT shares. Over the past three yrs, company has repurchased approx. $941 mln worth of stock.
06:48 ET Electroglas (EGLS) 15 1/8: Semiconductor equipment maker warns that Q1 revenues will fall 10%-12% below the $42-$44 mln guidance provided on Jan. 25. "Business conditions for the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment industry continued to decline rapidly during the first quarter."
06:45 ET Xerox Corp (XRX) 6.00: Announces that the filing of its year 2000 10-K report will be delayed. Delay relates to an internal review begun last week by the company's Audit Committee, in cooperation with the company's auditors, KPMG.
06:43 ET U.S. Markets : S&P futures trading at 1142, 12.0 points below fair value, Nasdaq 100 futures trading at 1494, 38.0 points below fair value. The 30-year bond is unchanged at 5.488%. The dollar is under fairly broad-based pressure amid concerns that the Japanese may step in to support the battered yen.
06:42 ET European Markets : FTSE -1.86%, DAX -2.36% -- European stocks down sharply across the board with another round of earnings concerns. Software makers such as SAP, Sage, Business Objects and Baltimore Technologies all hit hard following warnings late yesterday from BroadVision, Ariba and Inktomi. Not to be outdone, UK software maker Recognition Systems has also been crushed after the company reported that its full year loss will be wider than expected due to delayed purchases on the part of US clients. Phone-makers also under pressure, with Nokia leading the way following the company’s decision to provide 2 bln euros worth of financing for Orange, France Telecom’s mobile-phone division. Market sentiment also hampered by drop in French consumer confidence for the second consecutive month, while confidence among Italian manufacturers fell to its lowest level in 18 months in February. Market internals throughout the region absolutely horrific.
06:41 ET Asian Markets : Nikkei +1.44%, Hang Seng -1.12% -- Asian stocks mostly lower on the back of US stock weakness. Stronger than expected NAPM data still weighing heavily on inter-meeting easing prospects. Hong Kong down with Pacific Century CyberWorks falling to 23-month lows as Cable & Wireless announced plans to sell its entire stake in the company. Taiwan hit hard, losing more than 6% already this week amid concerns about a deterioration in US-China relations. South Korea down for the sixth straight session as foreigners sold blue chip issues. Semiconductor stocks down big, with Samsung losing nearly 5%. Japan one of the few bright spots with the Nikkei boosted by reports that the government will help finance a fund (by providing a third of the capital) to purchase excess shareholdings from the banking sector. Market internals in Japan extremely positive.
06:40 ET Nokia (NOK) 22.93: Trades off more than 5% in Europe after announcing (eur) 1.5 bln deal with mobile operator Orange to deliver solutions for a European 3G network. As part of the agreement, NOK will provide a bridge-financing package with an estimated value of over (eur) 2 bln. |
