Before the bell: AAPL, AMZN, GM, F, QCOM, SBUX, FDX ...

Posted Jan 2nd 2008 8:26AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the Bell, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), Amazon.com (AMZN), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Motorola (MOT), International Business Machines (IBM), Boeing Co (BA), FedEx Corp (FDX), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Amgen Inc (AMGN), Texas Instruments (TXN), Broadcom Corp'A' (BRCM)

Before the bell: Futures higher to begin the year

Net Applications survey released yesterday a survey of sample data from visitors to some 40,000 websites operated by the firm's clients. According to the survey, Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac hit a record 7.3% share, up from 6.8% last month. Of course, Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows still dominates with a 91.8% share as, but it has been losing ground for seven of the past 11 months, including in December. As for the iPhone, it also hit a new record, suggesting that better than 1 out of every 1,000 people on the Internet are browsing the Web using an iPhone.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares are up 2.4% in premarket trading after Citigroup upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) are scheduled to report their cars and trucks sales for December tomorrow. It is expected that December U.S. auto sales fell as consumers reined in spending, ending a year with the lowest demand for cars and trucks in a decade. A Bloomberg survey put GM deliveries down about 5.6% and Ford's decline 7.9%.

A federal court ruled Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) must stop producing and marketing cellular-phone chipsets and software that infringe three Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) patents. Qualcomm warned that it expects an "immediate, short-term impact" to result from the ruling.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) finished 2007 with yet another order. South Korea-based Jeju Air ordered five Next-Generation 737-800s for $370 million.

International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) said on Wednesday it had acquired XIV, a privately held storage technology company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Financial terms were not disclosed.

According to a joint statement, Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) and Metrologic Instruments Inc have settled all outstanding patent infringement disputes.

Lots more analyst calls this morning:

Lazard Capital upgraded Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) from Sell to Hold.
Banc of America downgraded National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) from Neutral to Sell and from Buy to Neutral respectively.
JP Morgan downgraded FedEx (NYSE: FDX) from Overweight to Neutral.
Bear Stearns downgraded Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) from Outperform to Peer Perform.

Tags: aapl, amgn, amzn, ba, brcm, f, fdx, gm, ibm, inthenews, mot, msft, nsm, qcom, sbux, txn

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-04-2008 @ 6:11PM

Christopher said...

Look for FedEX to close its FedEx Ground Div. and roll its contracts into FedEx National. And look for FedEx to invest in Diesel Engine Tech.FedEX Goes Green.