RECAP & STOCKS TO WATCH FOR WEDNESDAY, 2-21-01
After an early rally fizzled, traders and investors choked on tech stocks, driving most sectors into the red for the rest of the session. Much attention was focused on the networkers and chip stocks to see if they could bounce back from Friday’s sell-off, but to no avail. Fifteen of the stocks in the Nasdaq 100 hit new 52-week lows, including Cisco (CSCO), Sun Micro (SUNW), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), and Broadcom (BRCM).
The Nasdaq Composite slid 106 points to close at 2,318, its lowest close since January 8th. Volume was 1.85 billion shares, with decliners beating advancers by 2 to 1. Blue chips were dragged down by the techs as the Dow lost 68 points to finish at 10,730, its lowest close since January 29th. Volume on the Big Board was 1.1 billion shares with decliners beating advancers by 9 to 7.
From a technical standpoint, the Nasdaq Composite has support at 2,300 and the January low of 2251. The DJIA is resting on its 50-day Moving Average with next support at 10,700, and resistance at 10,900. The Semiconductor Index (SOX) broke support at 650 with new support now at 600.
Earnings Spotlight: Companies due to report this week include ADC Telecom (ADCT) and Brocade Comms (BRCD) on Wednesday, and BEA Systems (BEAS), Marvell Tech (MRVL), Pumatech (PUMA), and VerticalNet (VERT) on Thursday.
MRV Comms (MRVC): Reports Q4 earnings of $0.06 a share, $0.01 worse than the First Call consensus of $0.07, vs year-ago earnings of $0.05. Revenues rose 18.1%, to $97.70 mln from a year-ago of $82.70 mln. MRV expects realized revenue growth in the range of 5% for Q1 of 2001.
Agilent Tech (A): Reports Q1 earnings of $0.51 a share, $0.07 better than the First Call consensus of $0.44, vs year-ago earnings of $0.28. Revenues rose 26.5%, to $2.84 bln from a year-ago of $2.25 bln.
Intuit (INTU): Reports Q2 earnings of $0.48 a share, $0.03 better than the First Call consensus of $0.45, vs year-ago earnings of $0.44. Revenue of $457.6 mln was an increase of 8% over the $425.5 mln for the year-ago quarter.
VA Linux Systems (LNUX): Reports Q2 loss of $0.28 a share, $0.02 worse than the First Call consensus of ($0.26). LNUX intends to reduce workforce by 25% from the 556 people employed at the end of calendar 2000 and will take a restructuring charge in Q3 as a result. The amount of that charge will be determined later this quarter.
E.piphany (EPNY): Company announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Moss Software, Inc. and has also purchased the intellectual property assets of Radnet, Inc. E.piphany will issue an aggregate of up to 1.9 million shares of common stock, subject to purchase price adjustments
Sybase (SYBS): Company announces it will acquire New Era of Networks (NEON) in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $373 million.
Sprint FON (FON): Reported that its former European partners, Deutsche Telekom (DT) and France Telecom (FTE), will begin selling their $4 bln stake in FON. This anticipated sale of FON shares is slated for later in the first quarter with DT offering 76.16 mln shares and FTE offering 75.87 mln shares. |
