From Briefing.com: Close Dow -247.51 at 9618.24, S&P -32.42 at 1100.64, Nasdaq -50.93 at 1892.98: Fears of accounting irregularities ruled the day today. Despite, the session starting out on a positive tone, the market quickly came under pressure after the first 30 minutes of trading and kept heading south.
12:15AM IBM's Palmisano named CEO; Gerstner to stay thru 2002 (IBM) 104.25 -3.90 (-3.6%): News services reporting that company has named Samuel Palmisano CEO effective March 1st -- Palmisano will also retain his current title of President; Gerstner will remain Chairman through the end of 2002.
12:05AM Nasdaq Composite Intraday Outlook : -- Technical -- Index has broken down to its worst levels of the session. To the downside, look for subsequent support at 1910 with an additional floor in the area of 1900. From current levels, look for intraday resistance in the range of 1922/1925 followed by additional overhead at 1931.
11:32AM Conexant reaffirms positive 2002 outlook (CNXT) 13.82 +0.05 (+0.4%) : During their presentation at the Bank of America Technology 2002 conference, the co reaffirms that all 3 divisions are "clearly" on track for a recovery: broadband and wireless divisions have seen 2 sequential qtrs of growth, and Mindspeed biz should see 10% sequential growth this qtr.
10:37AM Sector Watch: Semiconductor : Group still holding modest gains with MOT +2.9%, TXN +5.7%, NSM +2.8%, XLNX +2.5% and LSI +1.3% pacing the way. However, the index (SOX at 549) has been backtracking after failing near resistance at its 200 day simple ma (554.42). Intraday support is at 546/545 with a more important floor at 542 (20 day exp/50 day simple ma). Worst performer in the group today is MU -1.7%.
8:03AM Therma-Wave downgraded at BofA (TWAV) 15.55: Banc of America downgrades to MKT PERFORM from Buy after the co missed ests by a wide margin last night; firm does not see any substantial recovery over next two qtrs, and it may be several qtrs before co can regain profitability. Lowers FY02 est to ($0.68) from ($0.51) and lowers FY03 to ($0.63) from ($0.38).
7:10AM Texas Instruments upped at Merrill Lynch (TXN) 28.40: Merrill Lynch upgrades to Near-Term BUY from Neutral after the co beat expectations last night; while the stock is expensive, improving gross margin following inventory drawdowns in 2001 gives upside to shares. Raises FY02 est to $0.13 from ($0.04); price target is $33.
8:01AM Semitool beat Dec qtr estimates (SMTL) 9.50: -- Correction -- Last night we incorrectly reported SMTL's earnings; the company lost $0.13 per share, 10 cents better than the Multex consensus, and revenues were $26.8 mln vs the $21.5 mln consensus. The company guided Mar qtr revenues to $22.8-26.8 mln and a loss of $0.13-0.19, both of which were below estimates of $27 mln and ($0.14).
StockCharts.com 6 month chart of the SOX
stockcharts.com[h,a]daclyyay[pb50,200!d20,2][vc60][iUb14!La12,26,9]
Charts of Semiconductor Stocks in the Briefing.com Report:
finance.yahoo.com^SOXX+QQQ&d=c&k=c3&a=r14&p=b,v&t=3m&l=on&z=m&q=c
Don, you are generally a bit more patient than I am so I knew you would not panic today. I'll admit on AMAT it is a little disconcerting that INTC and TXN announced capex reductions but they had to do that. Investors are interested in how these companies are going to increase their profit margins. Obviously one way will be by announcing lowered expenses. Once they show they can achieve growth again... profits should rachet up... and so will their capexes.
Mr. Greenspan will give us a rally tomorrow in my opinion!
Guess I'm not on Ignore after all? <g> RtS |
