Stocks to Watch on August 23
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U.S. stocks to watch: ARTISAN COMPONENTS INC (ARTI.O) British semiconductor designer ARM Holdings Plc (ARM.L) agreed to buy U.S. technology firm Artisan for &#36;913 million, to boost its product range, but ARM shares slumped on Monday on concerns it had overpaid. Artisan shares ended at &#36;23.88 on Nasdaq on Friday.
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Stocks to watch: KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS INC.
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Stocks to watch on Friday: DELL INC. : The top personal computer maker's earnings on Thursday reflected slow sales in the consumer market, and its revenue missed analysts' estimates. Its forecast for the first quarter was also disappointing to Wall Street.
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Stocks to watch on Friday:  BOEING CO. :
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Stocks to watch on Monday: COLGATE-PALMOLIVE CO. :
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Stocks to watch on Tuesday: GOOGLE INC. :
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U.S. stocks to watch on Friday:  UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS INC. UVC.N: The Spanish-language  broadcaster forecast earnings below Wall Street expectations.
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Stocks to watch on Monday: WALGREEN CO. :
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U.S. stocks to watch on Friday: TASER  INTERNATIONAL INC. TASR.O:
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U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday include Sears, Roebuck & Co., Kmart Holding Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Network Appliance Inc.
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Stocks to watch on Friday: DELL INC.  DELL.O: The top personal computer maker's earnings on  Thursday reflected slow sales in the consumer market, and its  revenue missed analysts' estimates. Its forecast for the first  quarter was also disappointing to Wall Street.
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(InfoWorld) - Despite financial and accounting problems at Dell Inc., Novell Inc. and Yahoo Inc., underlying faith in the software sector and a solid first-day performance on Riverbed Technology Inc.'s initial public offering indicate that the end of the year may yet reward IT investors. The early part of the third quarter proved worrisome for technology investors, as high hopes in the beginning of the year gave way to softer than expected sales and a price war for PC makers. But as the fourth quarter approaches, several brokerages have raised their forecasts for the tech sector as a whole. The lower cost of hardware is expected to spark a spending spree by both consumers and corporate buyers by the end of the year. Analysts also see pent-up demand for software. Signs of hope started appearing in August, when for example Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. released a survey showing that 60 percent of chief information officers polled anticipated increasing software spending in the second half of the year. In addition, Lehman Brothers Inc. and Credit Suisse First Boston have recently recommended that investors take a closer look and invest in technology stocks, reasoning that declines earlier in the year have made some companies a bargain. Stoked by recommendations, the Nasdaq exchange started taking off in August after sinking to a yearly low in July. Good news continued this week, as the debut of Riverbed, a maker of WAN (wide area network) optimization technology, shone on the Nasdaq. Riverbed's (RVBD) initial public offering of 8.7 million shares priced at US$9.75 a share, above the target of $7 to $8.50 a share, and closed at $15.30 Thursday, showing confidence in the network optimization trend. On TuesdayÂ Oracle Corp. reported better-than-expected earnings. Excluding one-time charges for acquisitions, Oracle's earnings per share grew 24 percent to $0.18, better than the $0.16 consensus forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Several analysts said that Oracle's results, after a similar strong report from Adobe Systems Inc. last week, bode well for the upcoming quarter. Specifically, Oracle's strong sales for new applications and services indicate that businesses are in the mood to buy. Citigroup upgraded Oracle to "buy" from "hold," and UBS Warburg and Deutsche Bank raised their price targets. Some bad news midweek put at least a temporary halt to the Nasdaq rise. Yahoo (YHOO) shares plunged $3.25, to close at $25.75 Tuesday after it warned that slowing growth from automotive and financial services advertisers would affect revenue. The warning pushed down sales of other Internet companies as well. News that both Dell andÂ Novell face delisting from the Nasdaq also helped depress the market Thursday. Due to accounting probes, both companies delayed financial reports, which triggered delisting notices. Hewlett-Packard Co. shares, which up until this week seemed impervious to the company's growing spy scandal, finally took a hit Thursday after revelations that Chief Executive Office Mark Hurd may have known about possible illegal investigative techniques as they were being planned. HP shares (HPQ) closed at $34.87, down by $1.91 Thursday. On balance, the bad news seems company-specific, while the solid software results and the excitement sparked by Riverbed appears to speak more to underlying trends. For the hoped-for fourth quarter tech rally to really happen though, investors need to see some strong quarterly reports next month. Â
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Plus: Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits...Seagate turns in mixed report...IBM targets well above expectations.
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Stocks to watch Tuesday: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY :
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Stocks to watch on Wednesday: CITIGROUP INC. :
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Plus:  Electronics sales push Sony to profit...STMicro sees market recovery...VMWare profit rises as software sales climb...Amazon margins a concern.
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Stocks to watch on Tuesday: JOHNSON &  JOHNSON JNJ.N, GUIDANT CORP. GDT.N