P6 reporting earnings this week
Story Filed: Sunday, October 29, 2000 9:15 PM EST
New York, (123Jump via COMTEX) -- Despite positive earnings from several companies, stock markets continued to show
wide fluctuations last week, with technology stocks being the most affected. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended the week down
265 points, or 5.9%, to finish at 3277.95, while the S&P 500 fell 1.2% on the week to close at 1379.56. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average was the only major index to finish the week higher, rising 364 points, or 3.5%, to close at 10590.11.
Investors will receive a slew of economy-related reports from the government this week. On Wednesday, the National Aociation
of Purchasing Management (NAPM) will report its index of manufacturing activity for October. Another key economic report
comes on Thursday when third-quarter productivity will be reported. Other reports include September personal income and
personal consumption expenditures; October consumer confidence; September new home sales; and the important employment
report for October will be released on Friday.
Earnings will continue to flood the Street this week, though at a slower pace. According to First Call/Thomson Financial, 360 of
the 500 companies on the S&P 500 have reported and 72% have beat expectations by 3.4%, compared with an average 3%
over the last six years. By the end of the week, 87% of S&P 500 companies will have reported their results. Meanwhile, 26 Dow
companies will have announced their results by the end of the week. First Call reports that so far 146 companies have iued
negative pre-announcements on fourth-quarter earnings, versus only 95 at the same time last year. Technology earnings growth
was cut to 18% from 29% for the fourth quarter and to 19% from 28% in the first quarter of 2001.
Among Net stocks reporting earnings this week are online toy retailer eToys (ETYS) and online travel site Expedia (EXPE).
eToys is estimated to post a lo of 35 cents in the quarter. Analysts are expecting Expedia, which was formed by Microsoft
(MSFT), to post a lo of 26 cents in the quarter.
Internet service provider EarthLink (ELNK) will report its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Analysts are expecting the company
to post a lo of 37 cents per share. Last quarter, EarthLink beat the consensus estimate when it lost $35.2 million, or 29 cents per
share, on sales of $230.9 million. America Online Latin America (AOLA), which offers Internet acce to Spanish- and
Portuguese-speaking customers, will report earnings on Tuesday with an estimated lo of 10 cents per share. Stamps.com (STMP)
is expected to post a lo of 85 cents per share.
Another important earnings announcement comes Wednesday from Priceline.com (PCLN). The company, which sells
name-your-own-price airline tickets, gasoline, groceries and other items online, is expected to post a lo of 1 cent per share.
Other companies scheduled to report results this week include Alcatel (ALA), Pharmacia (PHA), Verizon Communications (VZ),
Procter & Gamble (PG), Qualcomm (QCOM), PSINet (PSIX) and Cigna (CI).
Important highlights for the week include a host of technology conferences throughout the country. Monday will see the
commencement of the five-day Web2000 International Conference & Exposition at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The
conference is aimed at Web profeionals and will provide information about evaluating, implementing and anticipating the latest
Web tools and technologies.
The eCustomary Intimacy Conference will take place between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 in Boston. The conference will examine
strategies for building and managing relationships online. The eCustomer Conference & Exposition will take place at the L.A.
Convention Center between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 and will focus on attracting, identifying, selling to and servicing online customers.
EPubExpo, a two-day conference which will focus on management, distribution, sales and the protection of digital content, will
take place at the Millennium Hotel and Conference Center in New York.
Stocks to Watch Monday
Homestore.com (HOMS) saw its stock price jump 31%, or 8.98, to 37.94 Friday on news that it has agreed to acquire
move.com, an Internet real estate portal, from Cendant (CD) for $761 million in stock. The company, which will swap 26.3
million shares in the transaction, expects the deal to begin to add to earnings in fiscal 2001. Shares of Cendant added 1, or 10%,
to 10.93 Friday.
Online retail giant Amazon.com (AMZN) was the target of criticism in a story that appeared in Barron's on Saturday. The article
focused on the company's accounting disclosures of revenue from dot-com companies. Shares of Amazon had dropped 1.25 to
35.63 last Friday and are likely to be affected on Monday as well. |
