Stock futures were lower Friday morning after Dell reported disappointing results after the close Thursday. Rising oil prices due to Gustav also weighed in on investors. This morning, some economic data on personal income and spending among others will be released. Perhaps it could give the market some positive news ahead of the three-day weekend.Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) shares are dropping about 10% in pre-market trading after the computer maker reported a 17% drop in profit to $616 million, or 31 cents per share as margins were hurt by slashing PC prices as Dell tried to fend off competition in overseas markets. Sales rose 11% to $16.4 billion, ahead of Wall Street's view for $15.9 billion in sales.
Staying with earnings, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) shares are also down -- over 3% in after-hours -- after it reported its results after the close Thursday. The chipmaker that supplies Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry beat expectations but gave a conservative outlook, forecasting current quarter sales below analyst expectations.
Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) which stocks have been shooting upward the past few days. The climb in share prices follows a period of downward spiral. BusinessWeek is trying to estimate how much investors have lost in its damage report.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) share are down about 1.2% this morning in pre-market trading after it said it's going to buy Web-based survey company Greenfield Online (NASDAQ: SRVY) for $486 million in cash, or $17.50 a cash, which represents a 10% premium over August 25 price and tops a previous bid of $15.50 a share by a buyout firm.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) must be feeling pretty happy about now. A U.S. district judge ruled Wednesday that "closely-held Veoh isn't liable for copyright infringement after videos were posted to its site without permission." Viacom (NYSE: VIA) filed a $1 billion suit against Google, claiming its video sharing site YouTube should be held accountable for copyright infringement. Following Veoh's victory, Google might also be found not liable for hosting content posted by users to YouTube.
The Economic Times is trying to find out what is it about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) that even when it does mediocre or even bad things, it emerges / remains untarnished. Specifically, of course, it mentions the recent 3G iPhone problems that even critics give a pass.
Analyst calls:
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) must be feeling pretty happy about now. A U.S. district judge ruled Wednesday that "closely-held Veoh isn't liable for copyright infringement after videos were posted to its site without permission." Viacom (NYSE: VIA) filed a $1 billion suit against Google, claiming its video sharing site YouTube should be held accountable for copyright infringement. Following Veoh's victory, Google might also be found not liable for hosting content posted by users to YouTube.
The Economic Times is trying to find out what is it about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) that even when it does mediocre or even bad things, it emerges / remains untarnished. Specifically, of course, it mentions the recent 3G iPhone problems that even critics give a pass.
Analyst calls:
- Marvell saw its target price lowered by Deutsche Securities and Kaufman Bros from $22 to $20 and from $17 to $16 respectively.
- Friedman Billings lowered its target price on Dell from $30 to $27. Deutsche Bank cut Dell's price target to $28 from $32, but retained a buy rating.
Closing Bell: Stocks rally; CEG, MRVL, RIMM, SNDK soar
Collectible Investments: Fancy cancels
Is Yahoo a screaming bargain without Jerry Yang?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-29-2008 @ 9:08AM
Beltway Greg said...
Why does Apple remained untarnished? Is this a joke? For starters perhaps its the 85% customer satisfaction rating, 10% higher than #2 Dell, and maybe it has something to do with the record profits and sales in the midst of the current economic maelstrom. And just maybe it's because things really aren't that bad at Apple. Everyday this company wakes up and gets a bucket of glass thrown into its corporate persona. If you go back over the past year look at how completely incorrect almost all of the rumors have been in regard to Apple. Witness the current exploding IPod story. This one resurfaces every couple of months. Does it happen on a grand scale? No. And it mostly seems to occur in Japan. Is it related to the design of the IPod. Without a doubt, no. Why? With so many in the marketplace them buggers would be a poppin' all over the globe not to mention in NYC, LA, Baltimore, you get the picture.
Most of the people I've spoken to love their IPhones.
"And just one more thing", Apple plays the media game as well or better than any company in corporate America or the world and as such will constantly be under scrutiny because of the sheer amount of innovation it brings to the market place and the amount of attention it garners for its technological inquisitiveness. To badly paraphrase, my personal Jesus Steve Jobs, "Do you want to invest in sugar water or do you want to invest in a company that can change the world." MY advice is that if you can't stand the heat in
this stock you should invest in JNJ, ITT, APH, BEN, or any number of predictable plays.
Beltway Greg