From Briefing.com: 2:52PM MKTW: MarketWatch.com commentator Calandra resigns amid probe of trading activities -- CBS MarketWatch 10.00 -0.93: CBS Marketwatch reports that Thom Calandra, chief commentator for CBS MarketWatch and one of the founders of its parent company, resigned Thursday amid an internal probe into his trading activities that was sparked by a query from the SEC.
1:59PM CY upped to Outperform from Neutral at Schwab SoundView 22.90 +0.36: Firm's price tgt goes to $29 from $23.
1:44PM Color on Flextronics/Nortel outsourcing deal : CSFB believes that FLEX's announcement that it is in talks to serve as the key outsourcing partner for most of NT's optical and wireless infrastructure product lines is a major positive for FLEX; beyond the rev impact, firm says NT has quickly become a highly desirable outsourcing partner, and even more importantly, the deal would diversify FLEX's model by diluting the consumer mix toward 35-40% and reducing seasonality; firm calculates about $0.10 worth of accretion from the contract on an annual basis, but expects a possibly unpleasant digestion period lasting several quarters, likely including charges associated with program transfers, higher inventories, and integration expenses, and notes that the deal would measurably impact FLEX's liquidity.
1:27PM Sector Watch: Semiconductor : -- Technical -- The sector index (SOX 539.32, -0.3%) edged to a minor new session low in recent trade but it has held at an important short term support at 536 which marks its Jan range floor and Dec high (session low 537.37). The weakest components thus far today include: AMD -3.2%, NSM -2.5%, MU -2.5%, AMAT -1.3%, BRCM -1.6%, TXN -1.2% and INTC -1%. Bucking the bias are: ALTR +5.2% and LSCC +4.9%.
12:34PM New High Profile -- Webzen (WZEN) 12.25 +0.13: Making a new high yesterday and flirting with one today is Webzen, a developer and distributor of online games in Korea. Its current game "MU" is a 3D multiplayer online role playing game that has grown since its introduction to become one of the most popular online games in Korea and China. The co plans to introduce MU and other online games for customers in Korea, China, and the US. For the six months ended June 30, the co posted revenue of US$22.3 mln and operating income of US$13.8 mln. The co recently announced that the number of peak concurrent users for MU in Korea reached over 80,000 in Dec, the highest record to date. Also generating interest in the stock is the co's plan for large-scale updates this year, as well as the fact that the co is close to the commercial launch of MU in Japan and Thailand. This is a recent IPO (Dec 16, led by JP Morgan), and has climbed from its $11.17 offering price. Also, with the quiet period nearing an end, we expect initiations of coverage next week... Mkt cap $525 mln, float 35 mln, avg volume 201K.
12:04PM Tower Semi preannounces Q4 revs (TSEM) 8.40 -0.26: Co sees Q4 revs of $19.5-$20 mln and a net loss of $45-$47 mln. The one analyst covering the stock has an estimate of $18.5 mln for the qtr.
11:47AM PMC-Sierra falters after positive start (PMCS) 23.29 -0.51: -- Technical -- After a positive start to the session the stock has pushed firmly into the red. While currently off the session low (23.18), without a push back above the 23.55/23.60 area it is expected to remain vulnerable. Initial support, if follow through pressure develops, is at the weekly low of 23.09 with little thereafter until the Nov and early Jan highs of 22.81 and 22.76, respectively.
9:14AM Nortel to divest most of manufacturing activities, in talks with FLEX (NT) 6.83: Nortel Networks announced its intention to divest substantially all of its remaining manufacturing activities. Co is in discussions with Flextronics (FLEX) about the activities being considered for divestiture. The successful completion of these discussions could result in Flextronics undertaking and managing in excess of $2 bln of Nortel annual cost of sales on a go forward basis and involve the transfer from Nortel Networks to Flextronics of more than $500 mln of manufacturing and inventory assets. In return Nortel Networks anticipates receiving from Flextronics proceeds in excess of $500 mln in cash, over a nine-month period.
9:06AM Genesis Microchip: Dell names co primary provider of flat panel LCD controllers (GNSS) 20.40: Co announces that it has been named Dell's primary provider for flat panel image display controllers. The announcement extends Dell's relationship with Genesis to include controllers -- the technology that manages image and video quality -- in flat panel displays and LCD TVs.
9:04AM QCOM downgraded at Loop Capital 58.77: Loop Capital downgrades Qualcomm (QCOM) to Industry Perform from Outperform based on their belief that competitive forces could finally start to take hold in the CDMA chipset space; firm believes that the risk of competition may weigh negatively on MSM chip selling prices, and that added R&D expenses could reduce overall EPS growth; firm also believes that although many revenue drivers are present, much of this has already been priced into the stock.
8:55AM OPWV upgraded at RBC 16.01: RBC Capital upgrades Openwave (OPWV) to Outperform from Sector Perform and raises their target to $21 from $14; firm says they were encouraged by the sequential improvement in licensing rev and indications of growing rev visibility, and believes the co could drive significant earnings leverage as carriers increasingly promote and subscribers increasingly use mobile data services.
8:32AM NETGEAR raises guidance, announces 45 day lock-up extension (NTGR) 18.93: Company issues upside preannouncement for Q4 (Dec), sees EPS of $0.13-0.14 on revenues of $85-87 mln, consensus $80.8 mln. NTGR also announces it has extended the lock-up agreeements of some of its largest shareholders, holding approx 16.3 mln shares, for 45 days beyond original agreement, which expires Jan 26
8:17AM Cypress Semi beats by $0.02, ex items (CY) 22.54: Reports Q4 (Dec) pro forma earnings of $0.16 per diluted share, excluding amortization of intangibles and other acquisition-related, restructuring and special charges and credits, $0.02 better than the Reuters Research consensus of $0.14; revenues rose 35.3% year/year to $236.0 mln vs the $235.2 mln consensus.
8:14AM AVNX possibly losing business to JDSU -- Lightreading (AVNX) 7.40: Lightreading hearing rumors that AVNX losing some NT business to JDSU. "Something's happening at JDSU, which you'd expect with them having a new CEO [former Cisco exec Kevin Kennedy] wanting to do something and show 'em who's boss," says John Harmon, analyst with Needham & Co.. "And they also just raised $400 million [in zero-interest notes], which they've got to do something with." JDSU had more than $1 billion in cash and short-term investments before raising the extra $400 million in October, so it's understandable that observers would be expecting something big to go down. Recent Alcatel rumor didn't have legs.
8:06AM Cabot Micro beats by $0.03 (CCMP) 57.50: Reports Q1 (Dec) earnings of $0.46 per share, $0.03 better than the Reuters Research consensus of $0.43; revenues rose 33.2% year/year to $76.3 mln vs the $70.1 mln consensus.
8:02AM CCMP prelim $0.46, 3 cents ahead; revs $76.3 mln vs $70 mln consensus:
8:05AM SNDK Color 69.59: Thomas Weisel comments that SanDisk's conservative guidance fueled the after hours sell-off. Specifically, co guided Q1 product revs to decline 5-10% despite the fact that pricing pressure is "benign." Co also guided to 2H gross margin compression although they do not see new players, aggressive pricing, or expect yield issues. In firm's view, mgmt is merely being conservative as they play in a fluid, high-growth market, and used last night's earnings report to reset expectations. It is firm's opinion that the gross margin guidance for 2H04 does not reflect new competitive pressures, but only the uncertainties that new capacity additions from Samsung may have on margins, although they may turn out to have little impact. Thomas Weisel revising estimates lower to match mgmt's guidance; also reducing tgt to $80 from $100 to reflect new 2004 estimate.
8:00AM C-COR.net reports and guides (CCBL) 17.54: Reports Q2 (Dec) earnings of $0.78, which includes multiple gains and is not comparable to analysts' estimates. Company reports "income from operations" of $8.15 mln; dividing this by the share count, we came up with $0.21 per share, Reuters Research consensus is $0.13; revenues rose 14.1% year/year to $61.5 mln vs the $60.6 mln consensus. Company sees Q3 EPS of $0.06-0.08 vs consensus of $0.07 on revs of $58-60 mln, consensus $58.25.
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