Market briefing---Bob (fast)
Nasdaq---Anthony (slow)
>> welcome to the final half hour of “world financial report.” i’m bob bowdon. we saw stocks were up today. the dow up 26 points which equates to about .3% to 9,217. s&p 500 up also .3% or three points to 980. the nasdaq was up 1%, the winner for the day, to 1,661. checking most actives on the day we saw e.m.c. shares unchanged. lucent up four cents to $1.80. aol time warner shares up 30 cents. there was news today that the company may be considering dropping the aol from aol time warner. a check on u.s. treasuries now. we saw treasuries fall. 10-year and five-year falling. 4.35% is the yield on the 10- year. three-year and two-year fell as well. 7/32 and 4/32 respectively. we see the dollar down against the yen and euro. checking right now. 118.53 yen equaling $1. euro at 1.1363. movement was rather small. oracle shares traded higher after being upgraded at merrill lynch. here with details of the report is anthony massucci from the nasdaq market site.
>> oracle was most active at the nasdaq. with that buy rating, the stock rallied on the day.
merrill hreufrpbl thinks the stock could go higher, up to $15 a share which would be a 33% increase from yesterday’s close. the stock is attractive at current levels they said in the report. merrill lynch said oracle will likely make its sales forecast in the current quarter. now oracle stock has fallen by 17% in the last two months. merrill lynch addressed that by saying some recent weakness in the stock is due to inability to resolve peoplesoft’s tender offer. that bid is still active. oracle said they would extend the bid to september 19. shares of peoplesoft were up marginally today. siebel, a rival of oracle, higher. microsoft, rounding out the software look. looking at other software stocks adobe shares rising by 5% today. the stock was raised to a strong buy at u.s. bancorp. they think it goes to $40 from here. real networks up 13%. real networks and sprint will offer a service that allows customers to hear news and sports on their mobile phones. that news sent real networks higher. synopsys up 6.5%. up after a report in barron’s over the weekend that said the company stock was a good buy because of demand for its software. electronic arts hitting an all time high. banc of america analyst gary cooper think it is goes to $95 in the next year. let’s not forget the chip stocks . they actually passed software and led the nasdaq higher as a group. maxim reports earnings tomorrow at about this time. we also have kla-tencor going up. intel going higher. again, the chips, software and the nasdaq all trading up. nasdaq up 1%, breaking a six-day losing streak. back to you.
>> thank you, mr. anthony massucci. zorin shares falling in extended trading. they said its acquisition of unprofitable oak technology will hurt profit this quarter and next. shares down over 7% since the closing bell. zoran said third quarter earnings will be as much as 12 cents less than the 31 cents to 33 cents it predicted earlier. fourth quarter profit will be as much as a dime lower than it previously forecast. well, goldman sachs has toppled citigroup as the top seller of new convertible bonds this year. the debt securities can be exchanged for stock at a specific price and about $113 billion worth of convertibles have been sold this year. up 43% from last year. goldman arranged $15.5 billion worth of offerings this year, 14% of the new issue market. it took in as much as $465 million in fees. second was j.p. morgan chase. some of the nation’s retailers are scheduled to report results for the july quarter this week. companies to look forward to include jcpenney, federated department stores, target and kohl’s. those earnings will come as the commerce department releases july’s retail sales data, due out wednesday. economists expect sales to rise twice as much as the previous month. given the strong numbers that individual retailers reported last week, analysts expect another good showing for the group.
>> overall things are improving on the margin. in fact, we think this government number on wednesday that should come out is pretty solid. consensus at .8% and .5% ex- autos. that should be inching up as this week progresses we think.
>> economists surveyed by bloomberg forecast an increase of 1% for july in u.s. retail sales. well, wal-mart is making its numbers in the first week of august. sales are up 5% from a year ago at stores open at that time. that is within the company’s forecast. shoppers have been buying more food and back to school items as well as toys and electronics. the chain has been building store traffic by letting customers cash government child credit checks. shares of wal-mart were up today check that. down today seven cents. as you see, closing down .1% to $57.70. when we come back, what goes on inside an fomc meeting? our next guest will provide unique insight on the issues and arguments that may go on at the meeting tomorrow. we talk with creston martin, chairman of martin & associates. that’s after the commercial break.
