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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (48487)	3/7/2002 3:41:38 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Sun and Intel to set late tone By Shawn Langlois, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 3:30 PM ET March 7, 2002 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Intel and Sun Microsystems are on tap to deliver their midquarter updates Thursday afternoon amid a market uninspired by a dose Alan Greenspan optimism. The Fed chief, unable to buoy the retreating market, maintained that recent data show tentative signs the recession is over, and that "an economic expansion is already well under way." See full story. Nevertheless, with under an hour to go in regular trading, the Nasdaq was falling from positive territory, down 17 to 1,873 and the Dow was extending losses, off 80 to 10,494. Inside Intel Intel shares (INTC: news, chart, profile) gave back early morning gains ahead of a much-anticipated midquarter update. On Jan. 15, the chipmaking giant said its revenue would be between $6.4 billion and $7 billion with gross margins of approximately 50 percent. No earnings target was provided, but analysts currently forecast a profit of 14 cents a share on $6.7 billion in sales, on average. Expenses are expected to be between $2 billion and $2.1 billion. Check Hardware Stocks. Sun to update Sun Microsystems, with shares (SUNW: news, chart, profile) falling on heavy volume, is also scheduled to give insight into the state of its current quarter. Analyst Mark Specker at SoundView Technology said he is convinced that Sun Microsystems's third quarter continues to track below expectations, citing recent checks with the company's North American resellers indicate that business is the same as, if not worse than, January levels. Specker believes Sun will cut revenue expectations, and maybe even back off from its promise of profits for its fiscal fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call are forecasting a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $3.21 billion. Others in the spotlight The tone emanating from the Sun and Intel camps will likely reverberate throughout the entire tech sector. Look for notables like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: news, chart, profile), IBM (IBM: news, chart, profile), and Cisco (CSCO: news, chart, profile) to garner plenty of after-hours attention. Over in the biotech sector, Sepracor (SEPR: news, chart, profile) plunged almost 60 percent after being notified by the Food and Drug Administration that it would receive a "not approvable" letter for its new drug application for Soltara. And Celgene (CELG: news, chart, profile) took a sizeable hit, as well, when it announced that its new drug application for Thalomid would be delayed with the FDA due to a required, additional clinical trial. Look for both companies to remain active after the bell.