The markets got some extra relief today as weekly jobless claims only rose by 6,000 to 371,000. The Philly Fed also showed that manufacturing contracted slower than expected as output fell by 0.7% in April. Below are the unofficial closing prices for major index levels:
China Architectural Engineering, Inc. (AMEX: RCH) enjoyed another massive day as its stock rose another 23% to $10.17 late in the day based on construction, architecture, and engineering needs that will be necessary in China after that earthquake.
Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) products and services enable customers to protect and recover computer files. Its software helps users to reduce or eliminate data loss and recover applications, through automatic or manual means. Customers include law firms, financial institutions, hospitals, school districts and government entities. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are among the firm's strategic partners. EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) are major competitors.
The company surprised the Street last week, when it reported Q1 EPS of 13 cents and revenues of $23 million. Analysts had been looking for 11 cents and $22.2 million. Management also guided Q2 EPS to 15-16 cents (14 cent consensus), Q2 revenues to $24.4-$25 million ($24.44M consensus), FY08 EPS to 65-67 cents (65 cent consensus) and FY08 revenues to $101.7-$103.5 million ($102.29M consensus).
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) said its first-quarter profit dipped 14% on acquisition-related charges, but it posted a 17% revenue gain to $3.47 billion that beat Wall Street forecasts. Excluding items, EMC's profit was $477.3 million, or 23 cents per share. Also, VMware (NYSE: VMW) reported a 5% profit rise on faster-than-forecast sales growth. The company is mostly held by EMC. EMC shares are up about 5.5% in premarket trading. VMW shares are up 13.75% in premarket trading.
Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM), spun off last month by Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) reported first-quarter earnings this morning, posting a 29% increase in profit to $1.87 billion, or 89 cents a share as new varieties of Marlboro cigarettes such as clove flavored ones as well as acquisitions spurred sales in Indonesia, Pakistan and Mexico. The weak dollar also helped boost the bottom line. Revenue climbed 18% to $15.6 billion. The results beat the 78 cents analysts were looking for. Altria reports quarterly results Thursday. While Altria now does all its business in the U.S. where smoking has been on the decline, cigarette companies tend to do well in a weak economy.
Last night we heard that eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is suing Craigslist for unfairly trying to dilute eBay's 28% stake in it by more than 10%. Craiglist today is firing back, saying the online auctioneer's actions are unethical and smelling of a hostile takeover.
Stocks: Where the Big Bucks Lurk A closer look at S&P's list of stocks with big cash hoards and top analyst rankings show these 20 companies are sitting pretty. They include Apple, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Disney, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, J&J, Microsoft, Oracle, Paychex, P&G to name a few. Cash-Rich Companies
Mom's New Battle: The Food Price Bulge As American families face the double whammy of higher gas and food prices, moms nationwide are resorting to considerable ingenuity to stretch their monthly grocery budget. Beyond clipping coupons, families are embracing generic grocery brands, and making their own baby food and detergent. Soaring food prices elicit creative solutions from moms - CNNmoney
Tech companies suffered in the big internet explosion in 2000. Part of the problem was that many of them did not have adequate cash reserves to make it through the storm. They are concerned that the 2008 recession will be deja vu all over again.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, "As of late last month, the technology sector -- which already had been heavy on cash in the past few years -- held nearly $232 billion in cash and cash equivalents, up more than 6% from nearly $218 billion a year earlier, according to Standard & Poor's."
The move is mindless and completely unnecessary. Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY) now has $3.6 billion and EMC (NYSE: EMC) has $4.5 billion according to the S&P numbers. The idea of building assets on the balance sheet makes no sense because both companies make money and have forecast to make money for the rest of the year. EMC had operating income of over $1.7 billion last year.
Wall Street does not like to see "unused" cash sitting around making 2.5% interest. Companies that do not have announced M&A programs, big share buy-backs, or special dividends are going to be punished for balance sheets that are too good.
And they should be.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) was cut to "neutral" at JPMorgan according to 24/7 Wall St. The financial website also reports that EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC) was cut to "hold" from "buy" at Citigroup.
Citigroup downgraded Emulux (NYSE:ELX) from "buy" to "sell" according toBriefing.com. The newswire also reports that Bear Stearns downgraded Affymetrix (NASDAQ:AFFX) to "underperform" from "out perform"
MOST NOTEWORTHY: EMC Corp, Emulex, VCG Holding and Conexant were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Citigroup downgraded shares of EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) to hold from buy and Emulex (NYSE: ELX) to sell from buy and lowered its targets to $17 from $22 and to $12 from $20, respectively, to reflect their more cautious stance on the storage space after channel checks indicated a broadly softening demand environment, most notably for 'higher ticket' items.
Merriman downgraded shares of VCG Holding (NASDAQ:VCGH) to neutral from buy following the Q4 miss, as they believe acquisitions could slow in the near-term. They prefer to move to the sidelines until the company's outlook improves.
Oppenheimer downgraded Conexant (NASDAQ: CNXT) to perform from outperform as they believe the CEO departure could interrupt the company's turnaround.
5 Stocks Insiders Love If corporate managers and directors are buying their company's stock, maybe you should, too. They include Boston Scientific, Hanesbrands, Dow Chemical, McMoRan Exploration and Synaptics. Five Stocks Insiders Love - Kiplinger.com
Best Blue Chips for This Market The best way to boost your long-term returns is to buy when prices are cheap - and here are 5 excellent bargains -- 3M, DuPont, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard and Burlington Northern Santa Fe. The best blue chips for this market - CNNMoney.com
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that absent any catalyst beyond "cheap," the sector looks set to disappoint.
When people say "tech" on TV, it is almost always followed with "cheap," or "low valuation." To which I say, "So what?" AMD (NYSE: AMD) (Cramer's Take) looked cheap until last night. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) (Cramer's Take) looked cheap and there turned out to be no there there. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) (Cramer's Take) looks cheap but all I hear are earnings cuts. Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) (Cramer's Take) looks cheap, but who cares?
Lots of cheap out there.
Here's my question: where's the catalyst?
Shorts? Stronger growth in the second half? No, the only catalysts I look for in tech are product cycles, and other than Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) (Cramer's Take) (nice move there), Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (Cramer's Take) and maybe Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take), because we need a new phone there already, there are no new product cycles to speak of.
After hitting a one-year low of $12.74 in March, the stock hit a one-year high of $25.47 in October, but has moved lower since then. EMC opened this morning at $15.00. So far today the stock has hit a low of $14.76 and a high of $15.04. As of 12:25, EMC is trading at $14.86, up $0.16 (1.0%). The chart for EMC looks neutral and steady while S&P gives EMC a very positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.
10 Stocks With Big Insider Buying & Buybacks When people in the know in a company start purchasing large chunks of stock that is usually a good sign because they know better than anyone the in what is really going on. Here are ten that you should take a closer look at that are either seeing insider buying or are buying back shares. They include Amazon.com, US Steel, Move, Digital River, Verizon, GE and EMC. TheStreet.com : Top 10 Stocks With Big Insider Buying,
Not Tax Return = No Rebate Up to 20 million Americans who normally don't need to file returns must file this year to receive a rebate check. That's part of the fine print in the tax stimulus legislation that became the law of the land Wednesday. IRS offers details on stimulus checks, says nonfilers must file - MarketWatch
Love Your Money It's about your finances. How do you feel things are working out between you? Are your needs being met? See how to build a fulfilling long-term relationship with your finances. Love Your Money. It Will Love You Back - Kiplinger.com
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Microsoft's $31-per-share offer will wake up the Web sector.
Oh, doctor! Just when you thought there was no reason to own tech whatsoever, when everything was slowing and awful, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (Cramer's Take) decides to change the game and become the biggest online player there is.
This is huge. It is a giant liquidity event and a reminder that there is value, that there is a floor in a tech group that has gone from bad to worse this year, from totally unownable to ridiculously unownable.
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) this morning reported a fourth-quarter profit of 24 cents a share on revenue of $3.83 billion, beating analysts' estimates of 22 cents a share on revenue of $3.66 billion. However, EMC shares are plummeting this morning after VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), which is 86%-owned by EMC, reported fourth-quarter revenue of $412.5 million. Because analysts had expected VMW to report revenue of $417.4 million, investors may be thinking that VMW's breakneck growth will slow down for the first time since the company's August IPO. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on EMC.
After hitting a one-year low of $12.74 in March, the stock hit a one-year high of $25.47 in October. This morning, EMC opened at $15.42. So far today the stock has hit a low of $15.30 and a high of $15.75. As of 11:35, EMC is trading at $15.63, down $1.28 (-7.6%). The chart for EMC looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.
For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a March bear-call credit spread above the $18 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 11.1% return in 2 months as long as EMC is below $18 at March expiration. EMC would have to rise by more than 14% before we would start to lose money.
Here are some highlights from this past week's 
.gif){kind=logo}
Comfort Zone Investing: One thriving area of real estate: Apartments
Just how high will U.S. gasoline prices rise?
Nordstrom and Kohl's post smaller-than-expected Q1 profit declines
