NY Seen Steady; Eyes on AMAT, Motorola
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Wall Street was set for a steady start on Tuesday as crude oil prices eased, with results from chip group Applied Materials (AMAT.O) and inflation data a focus, while shares in a bullish Motorola (MOT.N) may rise.
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Plus: Motorola profit shrinks, phone forecast dims...Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits...Seagate turns in mixed report.
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Analysts expect continued growth despite a tough environment.
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U.S. stocks were set for a steady start  on Friday with a billion dollar share buyback plan at Texas  Instruments TXN.N lending some backbone to the technology  sector.
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Plus: Amazon margins a concern...AT&T profit rises...Samsung SDI swings to loss...Outstanding earnings for Apple.
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Steady but unspectacular growth might leave investors wanting a bit more kick.
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Shares of Motorola (MOT:NYSE - news - research) rose Tuesday after Geoffrey Frost, senior vice president of Motorola&#39;s mobile phone division, told Reuters that the company feels &quot;very good&quot; about sales growth during the second half of the year.
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(InfoWorld) - As IT investors brace for a wave of financial reports next week, mobile device makers are attracting attention as Asia becomes an increasingly important battleground for handset sales. For example, Motorola preannounced part of its quarterly report, due July 19, on Wednesday, saying thatÂ second quarter sales would be $8.6 billion to $8.7 billion, instead of $9.4 billion as previously forecast. The company expects a drop in handset sales in Asia, where vendors are vying to get the lion's share of the market in growing national economies, as North American and Europe become saturated with mobile phones. Despite the revised forecast, Motorola enjoyed a spike in the price of its shares caused by rumors that CEO Ed Zander might resign. Motorola shares jumped Wednesday by $0.33 Wednesday to close at $17.95, and rose again Thursday to close at $18.08. Zander attracted criticism from heavyweight investor Carl Icahn earlier this year and now has come under attack from well-known activist shareholder Eric Jackson. Zander's departure would indicate that a serious restructuring was under way at the company, which has been outflanked on several fronts in the handsets wars by rivals like Apple. Meanwhile, investors saw Motorola's quarterly weakness as Nokia's gain. Brokerage Oppenheimer & Co. reiterated a "buy" rating on Nokia after Motorola's announcement. Nokia shares rose $1.08 Thursday to close at $29.95. The mobile phone market has come under increasing scrutiny lately in the wake of the June 29 launch of Apple's iPhone in the U.S. Apple is now reported to be in talks with carriers to launch the device in Europe, Finland-based Nokia's home market. A report from a JP Morgan Chase analyst Tuesday thatÂ Apple will also launch a cheaper version of the iPhoneÂ in the fourth quarter drove up Apple shares. JP Morgan analyst Kevin Chang said the new model could sell for less than $300, basing his report on Apple patent filings and component supplier sources. A cheaper iPhone would put it within reach of younger customers. Apple shares rose by $1.68 Thursday to close at $134.07. Technology companies for the most part are riding high on general confidence in corporate earnings. The technology-heavy Nasdaq has hit several six-and-a-half year highs over the last 10 days. General economic conditions have helped. For example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record Thursday on positive news from retail sales data and continued mergers and acquisitions announcements. But IT vendors themselves are coming off a string of quarters that have generally been good for earnings overall. The torrid pace of M&A in IT also continues unabated: Just this week, for example, Google beefed up security offerings with itsÂ planned $625 million buy of Postini. Next week will provide key information for forecasts for the rest of the year as a string of IT bellwether reports quarterly sales and guidance for the rest of the year. Among those due to report: IBM, Google, Yahoo, Motorola, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and SAP.
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Wall Street was set for a steady start  on Thursday as investors tune in to more merger talk in  telecoms ahead of key data and earnings from computer maker  Dell DELL.O that may shape sentiment in the technology  sector.
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Wall Street was expected to open little changed on Monday, with investors on the watch for January retail sales data while merger fever spices up an otherwise flat corporate agenda.
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The company's latest earnings met analysts' estimates but uncertainty still lingers.
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Plus:  Microsoft tops its expectations...Google doubles profit year-over-year...SAP earnings beat estimates...EarthLink trims outlook...AT&#38;T posts $7.1 billion loss...Lucent sees first profitable year since 2000...EMC issues sunny report.
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Earnings season is in full swing, and results this week from bellwethers like Google, Intel, and Nokia are fueling hopes for a strong fourth quarter while confirming the investor confidence that has led to a rebound in share prices of technology vendors.All eyes were on&#160;Google, which Thursday reported another stellar quarter. For the third quarter, net income was $1.07 billion compared with $733.4 million a year ago. Revenue leaped 57 percent to $4.23 billion. The company has made some investors nervous by expanding rapidly and spending a lot of money on acquisitions to fuel growth in new areas. However, its core search business manages to ward off the competition. Google shares jumped $6.14 to $639.62 right after its announcement.Google archrival&#160;Yahoo reported a 4.6 percent decline in third-quarter profit&#160;compared to a year ago Tuesday, but revenue climbed 12 percent to $1.76 billion. Company executives said they were weeding out poorly performing services and enhancing efforts in promising areas&#160;like ad-supported music services and e-mail offerings to small businesses. The company is also expanding efforts to support third-party developers with open APIs.Even though Yahoo has been blasted for its failure to steal search ad revenue from Google, investors and analysts appear to like its strategy. Citigroup maintained a &quot;buy&quot; rating on the company while RBC maintained an &quot;outperform&quot; rating. Yahoo shares jumped $2.13 to close at $28.82 the day after the report.The market might be tougher on Internet retailers. eBay reported Wednesday that revenue climbed 30 percent but that it suffered a loss because of a $1.39 billion charge for&#160;its acquisition of Internet phone pioneer Skype. Although the company raised its 2007 revenue target, investors apparently did not like the charge for Skype, which failed to make revenue goals. Shares of eBay lost $2.50 to close at $38.10 Thursday.In one of the most-anticipated results of the week,&#160;Intel got the earnings season off to a good start Tuesday, reporting revenue of $10.1 billion, a 15 percent increase year-over-year, while achieving net income of $1.9 billion, a whopping 43 percent increase. The price competition in the market is tough, but a jump in sales and a restructuring effort appears to be paying off. Intel jumped $1.24 to close at $26.72 the day after the report.AMD did not handle the price competition so well, however. Though it registered a 23 percent rise in sales, it posted another loss. Thursday,&#160;AMD reported that its net loss was $396 million, compared with a profit of $136 million in 2006.Reaction to IBM results were mixed Tuesday, when&#160;it reported profit of $2.36 billion, compared to $2.22 billion a year ago. Revenue was $24.1 billion, a 7 percent increase from last year. Though the numbers were better than expected, a disappointing 10 percent slip in hardware sales worried investors, who pushed down IBM shares Tuesday by $3.82 to close at $115.78.Nokia managed to offset declining prices of handsets with a jump in sales. Thursday it said that for the three months ending Sept. 30, net profit increased 85 percent over the third quarter of 2006, while sales rose 28 percent. Nokia shares closed Thursday at $37.64, up by $1.11.Concerns about the U.S. economy -- because of a declining housing market and an increase in mortgage defaults -- caused shares to tumble in July and August. But judging from results this week, IT vendors were not hard hit during the quarter and investors are likely to have high expectations for the rest of the year.
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Motorola Inc. MOT.N, the  second-largest mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it expects  to sustain strong sales growth in the second half of 2004 on  new handsets, sparking a 4.7 percent jump in its shares.
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Plus: Sun reports increased quarterly profit...SunPower profit drops, but outlook brightens...AT&T earnings up on wireless growth...Nokia earnings soar, market share solid...Qualcomm results show strong demand.
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Stock futures signaled a flat to slightly higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with technology shares poised to advance on news that Apple Inc.  and Cisco Systems Inc.  have ended a trademark battle.
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Plus: Alcatel outlook weak...Cisco profit climbs...Time Warner lowers earnings target...Electronic Arts lowers outlook, shares fall.