Market briefing --- Bob (fast)
NYSE --- Julie (slow)
welcome to the final hour of “world financial report.” we’ll call this chip tuesday. intel third-quarter earnings are out. let’s look at the headline number, coming in at 27 cents a share of operating earnings. we previously reported 26 cents but that didn’t factor in special items so the company is reporting operating earnings of 27 cents, meeting analysts’ estimates. moving to revenue, a slight -- third-quarter revenue at $8.47, slightly exceeding expectations at 8.44 was expected and revenue, 8% higher than the 7.8 billion last year. the company reported 55.7% gross margin, previously forecasting 56% to 60% for gross margin and intel may say rounding off the third-quarter number brings you to 56, which is within the range. on the inventory front, c.f.o. bryant said in a bloomberg interview that third-quarter inventory fell $40 to $50 million. on to the forecast, intel forecasting current quarter revenue in a range of $8.6 to $9.2 billion, presenting a midpoint of $8.9. analysts’ estimates was within the midpoint range but the midpoint was below the analysts’ estimates, expecting $9.07 billion. intel forecast gross margins for the fourth quarter which the company said would be 56% plus or minus a couple of points. c.e.o. craig barrett said -- checking intel shares in extended hours trading, the screen updating with a 67 cent move to the upside. other semiconductor stocks have rallied, as well, on the intel news. as the screen updates, t.i. shares up 32 cents, a.m.d. up 25 cents in the after hours. chip equipment stocks enjoying something of a rally and we’ll wait for that screen to update. applied materials up 20 cents and novellus systems up 51 cents after the intel numbers. while intel has been lifted, yahoo moving lower. we see yahoo down .6%, down 21 cents at $34.02 in after-hours trading following the release of its third-quarter results. net income at yahoo more than tripled, coming in at 17 cents a share, earning nine cents a share excluding items, matching analysts’ estimates. the internet search engine cites pickup in advertising revenue and gains in selling its stake in google. yahoo raised its 2004 revenue forecast, projecting sales of as much as $2.57 billion. analysts were looking for $2.53 billion. manufacturing on, there’s a changing of the guard at starbucks. chief executive orin smith is retiring as of march 31, replaced by jim donald, president of starbucks north american operations. the announcement was made after the close of regular session trading and investors not liking that news. that stock down 74 cents. mr. smith became the chief executive in the summer of 2000. during that time, he had doubled quarterly net income and revenue for starbucks and the company went from 2,500 stores to more than 8,500 locations today. shares have almost tripled in value during his tenure, going from $17 to $48 as of today’s close. the business council issued a correction to its economic survey. it says the majority of u.s. chief executives surveyed project economic growth between 2.1% and 4.5% in 2005. last week, the council said growth would be under 2%. david burseon, vice president and chief economist for fannie mae prepared the report and said the discrepancy was a tabulating error. royal philips electronics forecasts semiconductor demand will stall. you see the numbers with the dow jones industrial average unchanged on the day but the s&p down almost .25% and the nasdaq down .2%. treasury prices rose as record oil prices fueled speculation the federal reserve may slow its pace of raises interest rates. looking at the bond chart, the 10-year -- as we said, stocks turned around today, along with the price of oil. for more on today’s trading action, a report from our julie hyman at the big board.
>> stocks ended the session little changed both for the dow and the s&p. we had a midday turnaround as the price of oil turned negative and also as we had that business council report showing more optimism among c.e.o.’s than had been reported. because of this, we saw energy stocks falling today midway through the session, down just about 1%. the other big weight on the index, semiconductors. technology performing poorly today after royal philips electronics, the dutch company, said semiconductor sales will stagnate and demand slow for d.v.d. players and mobile phones that use their chips as well as those from texas instruments, national semiconductor and a.m.d. on the plus side today, utilities performing well as treasury yields fell. yields at these cups look more attractive. real estate companies also gainers in the session in terms of groups. today we had many earnings out from various companies. johnson & johnson said third-quarter profit was up 13%, beating analysts’ estimates. a higher demand for resperdoll drug and remicade to treat arthritis. we saw shares of n.c.r. rise, boosting full-year profit forecasts, expecting $1.40 to $1.45 a share. i’m julie hyman, bloomberg news at the new york stock exchange.
>> after reaching $54.45 a barrel, crude oil prices fell on speculation that demand does not warrant these kinds of record prices. oil, by the way, surged 23% since september 8 on concern that lower u.s. production caused by hurricane ivan would limit available supplies for refiners making heating oil. crude oil at $52.51, down about 2% was the move. moopg other energy movers, gasoline in new york down about 1.75%, heating oil down a little over 1% and natural gas futures down over 5% at $6.64 per million b.t.u. we’ll look at what’s driving the price moves later in the program. first, a federal jury has ordered medtronic to pay $400 million in punitive damages to the inventor of spinal implant products in addition to $159 million awarded to the inventor last month. the jury found that medtronic was “reckless, fraudulent and malicious” when it failed to properly credit the inventor of the product and short change him on royaltyies. his lawyer says the payout could total more than $1 billion over 20 years. shares of chiron ended lower after the company said it was under investigation by the justice department. last week, british authorities shut down chiron’s flu vaccine plant, creating a shortage in the u.s. for injectable vaccines. the justice department may be probing how the company disclosed contamination that led to a factory closing. chiron chief executive said on september 28 he’s expected to deliver up to 48 million doses to the u.s. even after finding in august that as many as four million flu shots were not sterile. after a quick commercial break, the chief executive of devon energy expects energy prices to stay high. we’ll hear from larry nichols when we return. further
