Bear Stearns downgraded General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) to Underperform from Peer Perform after news it would pay $46.7 billion in retiree health care liability. The analyst, Peter Nesvold, said he preferes Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) as an investment since it still has most of the restructuring news ahead of it. Bear Sterns expects a year-over-year decline in industry-wide auto sales in 2008 and further market share erosion for GM due to fewer product launches than in 2006-2007.Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) just reported financial results for its third-quarter. Profit fell, hurt by restructuring charges, but Johnson & Johnson slightly raised its earnings forecast for full-year 2007. The company said it earned $2.5 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the quarter, compared with $2.76 billion, or 94 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Goldman Sachs added Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) to the Americas conviction buy list, ahead of first-quarter earnings with a $37 target price. Near-term catalysts such as the aQuantive acquisition, Halo 3, Windows Server 2008 launch and Christmas Xbox 360 sales will help drive the price of Microsoft's shares higher, including an expected strong first-quarter results.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube has rolled out long-awaited technology to automatically remove copyrighted clips. After Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) sued it for $1 billion for showing copyrighted videos, the company hopes to placate movie and television studios from Disney and Time Warner.
Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) was upgraded by JPMorgan from Neutral to Overweight.
According to Ars Technica, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) plans to expand iTunes Plus -- its version of DRM-free tracks -- to include certain indie music labels, but still not to other larger labels. Apple also plans to drop the price of all iTunes Plus tracks from $1.29 to 99 cents.
Following Ericsson's (NASDAQ: ERIC) warning, Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) shares are down over 1.2% in premarket trading, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) shares are down 2.77% in premarket trading and Alcaltel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) shares down over 5.6% in premarket trading.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-16-2007 @ 1:16PM
V.S. said...
What a crock.......Now Sterns up-grades GM stock...Sounds fishy to me on this one...Can't they read what is in the new contract? It gives GM all the flexibility to gain market share, move their products in and out of production without added costs..Look for GM stocks to hit $55 to $58 by the end of the year.....and Bear Sterns should be investigated by the SEC for down-grading and then turning around and up-grading....Must be looking for a quick buck here! ?????
10-16-2007 @ 4:38PM
Jocelyn said...
Glad J&J decided to heavily focus on overseas sales. The overseas market is becoming more and more important these days. The management team made a good call, just gives me another reason to trust in their management skills http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/common-ties-cou.html