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Strategies & Market Trends : Can you beat 50% per month? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (12582)	12/4/2007 8:52:14 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 19256

Always good when they're cutting off their own legs. --- DJ BEFORE THE BELL: Brokers Fall As JPMorgan Cuts View . NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Major financial stocks fell before the opening bell Tuesday after JPMorgan cut its estimates for the sector's fiscal fourth quarter and 2008, citing weaker fixed-income projections and a modest slowdown in advisory revenue growth. "We expect writedowns of fixed income inventory and a slowdown in M&A and origination activity to negatively impact results for all the brokers," JPMorgan said. Shares of Goldman Sachs Group (GS) fell 2.5% to $221.17; Morgan Stanley (MS) shares fell 2.2% to $51.15; Merrill Lynch (MER) fell 1.4% to $58.25; Lehman Brothers fell 3.6% to $59.20; and Bear Stearns shares fell 2.2% to $96.25. Meanwhile, Punk Ziegel analyst Dick Bove said his recent ratings upgrades on Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers were premature, as he reduced ratings on all three to sell from market perform. Merck Down On Full-Yr EPS Forecast Shares of Merck & Co. (MRK) fell 2.8% to $57.12 after the drug maker forecast 2008 earnings that fell short of analysts' expectations, as the pharmaceutical company will have to deal with generic competition for its blockbuster osteoporosis drug. The Whitehouse Station, N.J., company said it expects 2008 earnings of $3.28 to $3.38 a share, excluding items. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect 2008 earnings of $3.39 a share. In addition, Merck said it expects a $100 million pretax charge associated with its ongoing global restructuring, and a $2.5 billion minimum gain associated with its AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) limited partnership. Nokia Falls On Margin Targets American Depositary Receipts of Nokia Corp. (NOK) fell 3.1% to $39 after the world's largest handset maker revealed its financial targets for the next two years and beyond, with analysts saying the margin targets needed to be more aggressive to boost the stock. Nokia said it is now targeting an operating margin of 16% to 17% within the next one to two years, up from the 15% target the company gave in November 2006, and also that its Devices and Services operating margin is targeted to be around 20% during the next one to two years, up from 17%. For its Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture with Siemens AG (SIE), the company said it expects an operating margin of 10% by 2009, and an increase in its market share of mobile devices in 2008. Trump Entertainment Down; CFO Resigns Shares of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. (TRMP) fell 15% to $4.20 after the resort and casino operator said late Monday in a regulatory filing that its chief financial officer resigned to accept a similar position at another gambling company. Former CFO Dale R. Black's new employer wasn't listed in Trump Entertainment's disclosure filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it will identify potential candidates to succeed Black, who had been the company's CFO since November 2005. AutoZone Up As 1Q EPS Beats Street View Shares of AutoZone Inc.'s (AZO) rose 4.9% to $113.20 after the nation's largest auto parts retailer said its fiscal first-quarter net income rose 7%, beating analysts estimates as the auto-retail industry weathers high gas prices and the ongoing credit crunch. The Memphis company posted fiscal first-quarter net income of $132.5 million, or $2.02 a share, up from $123.9 million, or $1.73 cents a share, a year ago. The company said its revenue rose 4.5% to $1.46 billion. Gross margin rose to 49.9% from 49.2%, thanks to improved inventory controls and increased sales of higher-margin products. Analysts had expected earnings of $1.91 a share on revenue of $1.44 billion. H&R Block Down As Option One Deal Falls Through Shares of H&R Block Inc. (HRB) fell 6.6% to $18.18 after the company, in its first major move since new management took charge two weeks ago, said it and Cerberus Capital Management have agreed to walk away from their April deal that would have had Cerberus buy struggling Option One Mortgage Corp. As a result, Option One has stopped originating new loans and will close that part of its operations. H&R Block also plans to sell the unit's mortgage-servicing business. H&R Block said it and Cerberus tried to identify mutually acceptable alternatives to restructuring the original agreement, which initially valued Option One at nearly $1 billion. But the two sides couldn't reach a new deal "in light of the widespread changes in mortgage market conditions and the substantial reduction in new lending by OOMC." Closing the mortgage-origination business will result in cutting about 620 jobs and restructuring charges of about $75 million. Some $34 million of that should be recorded in the fiscal second quarter, which ended Oct. 31. The remainder should be recorded in the current quarter. Futures Down As Credit Mkt Concerns Linger U.S. stock futures Tuesday pointed to a second day of losses, as credit-market tensions lingered in the market. S&P 500 futures fell 8 points to 1467.5 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 16.75 points to 2058.25. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 65 points to 13283. -Brett Philbin, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5393, brett.philbin@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires December 04, 2007 08:32 ET (13:32 GMT) Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 08 32 AM EST 12-04-07