Stocks Fall on Cisco Concerns; HP Soars
690744
U.S. stocks tumbled on Wednesday, led  by a slide in tech shares after a disappointing report from  bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO.O triggered investor  concerns about industry demand.
140686
Stocks crashed across-the-board on Wall Street yesterday as the spike in oil prices compounded weakness due to a Cisco downgrade and weak numbers by Morgan Stanley.
368650
U.S. stocks were near the unchanged  mark on Wednesday as results from technology bellwether Cisco  Systems disappointed Wall Street, while investors await an  expected interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve later in  the trading session.
227372
The Nasdaq Composite Index booked its second straight day of gains on Wednesday as solid earnings from Cisco Systems Inc.  increased the allure of technology stocks.
179728
U.S. shares were expected to start slightly weaker on Tuesday on caution ahead of results from networking gear maker Cisco Systems  which will set the direction for technology stocks.
759178
The blue-chip Dow average declined  slightly, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were little changed  on Tuesday as investors waited for an expected quarter-point  hike in U.S. interest rates and results from technology  bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO.O.
237638
U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, led lower by technology shares, as investors turned skittish about Friday's jobs report and the economy's prospects.
628365
Cisco Systems Inc. , the largest maker of communications gear to direct traffic over the Internet, on Tuesday said quarterly earnings rose, but shares fell in after market trading amid concerns about weak revenue and rising inventory.
122517
A weak forecast from Cisco marked another roller-coaster week for technology companies on the stock market.The Nasdaq, home to many tech companies, suffered a gut-wrenching 3.1 percent drop Tuesday after a U.S. service sector report showed a decline in the nonmanufacturing index from December to January. Though the index recovered somewhat during the rest of the week, the Tuesday drop was yet another demonstration that IT investors are worried that a broad economic slowdown will affect technology. The decline in the nonmanufacturing sector was the first such drop since the beginning of 2003.Cisco&#39;s earnings report&#160;on Wednesday reinforced concerns that the broader economy will have an impact on IT. Cisco forecast revenue for its current fiscal quarter to increase 10 percent, compared to analyst consensus expectations of 15 percent, according to Thomson Financial. On a conference call with analysts, CEO John Chambers said the upcoming quarters will be &quot;extremely challenging.&quot;Confirming fears of market watchers, he also noted that &quot;we are seeing our U.S. and European customers becoming increasingly cautious.&quot;However, sales for the fiscal quarter ending Jan. 26 were up by 16.5 percent to $9.8 billion. The company has been saying for some time that it will sustain double-digit growth through the rest of the decade by incorporating data, voice, video, and mobile capabilities -- its &quot;quadruple play&quot; -- across product lines.Despite the muted forecast, market watchers still have faith in the company. Company shares rose slightly the day after the report, closing at $23.38, up by $0.30.The &quot;quadruple play&quot; pitch still resonates with analysts, and several company watchers noted that Cisco shares have declined along with the wider market over the last few months, giving it a good valuation for long-term investors. Pacific Crest analyst Tim Daubenspeck upgraded the stock to &quot;Outperform&quot; from &quot;Sector Perform.&quot;&quot;Ultimately, we believe that many of the drivers are firmly in place for Cisco to achieve its long-term growth forecast of 12 percent to 17 percent,&quot; he said in a research note.Chambers&#39; cautious forecast, however, could have a bad effect on its suppliers and customers, including electronics manufacturing services and telecom companies. On Thursday, Qwest Communications dropped $0.29 to close at $5.27, Sprint Nextel declined by $0.6 to close at $9.56, and Nortel Networks dropped $0.55 to $10.99.In other telecom-sector news,&#160;Alcatel-Lucent&#160;on Friday said revenue for its fourth quarter increased 18 percent to $7.61 billion. The company, however, suffered a net loss of $3.76 billion, mainly because of a writedown related to the shrinking value of assets from Lucent. Company shares declined by $0.29 to $5.96 in midafternoon trading.Citigroup Global Equity Research said that the Cisco forecast does not bode well for electronics manufacturing suppliers. &quot;Simply put, this is not good news for EMS [electronics manufacturing services] companies,&quot; wrote Citigroup&#39;s Jim Suva in a research note.Such companies include Jabil Circuit, Celestica, and Smart Modular Technologies, he noted.In other technology sectors, Time Warner&#39;s plans to&#160;split up the Internet access and audience businesses of its AOL unit, reiterated by CEO Jeff Bewkes Wednesday, gave a temporary boost to Time Warner shares. Time Warner wants to grow AOL&#39;s ad-supported audience business, including online services and content.The company had said before that it would at some point run the two businesses as separate entities, to better focus on the advertising business. Nevertheless, company shares rose $0.31 Wednesday to close at $15.71.But the company has an uphill battle. In the fourth quarter, AOL&#39;s ad revenue increased 18 percent, less than the 25 percent industry average. And it faces not only Google, but a potentially strengthened Microsoft, if its&#160;bid to buy Yahoo&#160;succeeds.
617272
STOCKS drifted yesterday as investors waited for an expected quarter-point hike in US interest rates and results from technology giant Cisco Systems.
191457
European equities fell in line with losses on Wall Street as technology shares lost ground after Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the US warned of weak demand.
438243
(InfoWorld) - Global IT expansion this year is expected to be modest, but vendors that demonstrate nimbleness and creativity are being rewarded. Market indices have declined as traders brace for a slowdown after corporate share prices rose steadily over the past seven months. But IT investors are still jumping on the bandwagon for companies that are seen making wise investments and restructuring decisions. Traders applauded EMC's decision, announced Wednesday,Â to offer 10 percent of its VMware virtualization software subsidiary in an IPO. Despite a general market downturn Thursday due to concerns over the U.S. housing market, EMC shares were trading at $14.58 Thursday afternoon, up by $0.99. The spin-off lets the public inject cash into a part of the company offering trendy virtualization technology while allowing users and investors to more easily analyze the core traditional storage business, which many analysts feel is undervalued. Hewlett-Packard shares also remained high this week in the wake of its Monday announcement thatÂ it will buy business transactions monitoring software supplier Bristol TechnologyÂ for an undisclosed amount. HP said Bristol will help strengthen its business technology optimization product offerings. Cisco Systems shares jumped Wednesday,Â after it issued its earnings report Tuesday, and stayed high. Cisco is doing well in several key areas. Beating analyst forecasts for sales last quarter, Cisco reported that revenue increased more than 27 percent to $8.4 billion and profit grew 39.7 percent to $1.9 billion, compared to the year-earlier quarter. Key to company growth were storage products and developing markets -- precisely what market observers are looking for. Brokerage Robert W. Baird & Co. upgraded Cisco to "outperform" from "neutral." User demand for security, storage, wireless devices, and server optimization technology remains high, analysts say. Small businesses and developing economies are forecast to be the main drivers of growth. "The opportunity to provide SMBs with advanced technology will continue to grow significantly throughout the world in 2007," according to the report, from Ray Boggs, vice president for Small/Medium Business and Home Office research at IDC. Companies positioning to capitalize on trends are even, sometimes, forgiven losses. Even though ISP EarthLink Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $24.8 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $29.2 million, it got kudos for making efforts to target growth opportunities. "The industry is shifting, and it is focusing on new opportunities like broadband, wireless Internet and Internet telephony in a variety of marketplaces around the USA, " said telecom analyst Jeff Kagan. EarthLink's loss was mainly attributed to its investment in Helio, the company's wireless joint venture with South Korea's SK Telecom. Despite the loss, Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto upgraded the stock to "neutral" from "sell." "We believe the flexibility of the company to cut these investments or restructure via a leveraged buyout, management buyout or recapitalization limits the downside," Noto wrote in a research note. Â
678433
Investor's Business Daily - Networking giant Cisco Systems may be in short-term pain. But it's looking past that to long-term gain.
372326
Stocks were seen opening lower on  Wednesday after investment bank Morgan Stanley MWD.N said  quarterly profit fell, while a brokerage downgrade on  bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO.O could hurt technology  stocks.
101462
By JORDAN ROBERTSON  SAN FRANCISCO - Despite a robust second quarter and a sunny financial forecast, networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. is coming under intense scrutiny over fears about the company's ability to sustain its torrid growth rates.
584084
U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday on concern about higher-than-expected inflation and a sharp drop in shares of technology bellwether Hewlett-Packard Co.
184590
Q. On the advice of a friend who was making lots of money several years ago, I bought some shares of Cisco Systems for $124 each. They've recently been trading in the high $20s. I will not sell them for such a loss.