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RE: POOL - I'm showing the high @ $27.95 today Zeev.
14:23 ET Soundview raises Sept motherboard shipment forecast : Sources are telling us that Soundview is out with some positive comments on motherboard shipments today; firm is indicating that they are now looking for 16% growth in Sept, up from the current est of 10%. (Note that Salomon Smith Barney raised their Sept motherboard forecast to 10% yesterday.)
14:14 ET Microsoft: Sherlund sees quarter on track (MSFT) 46.46 +0.78: -- Update -- Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund says that MSFT is likely tracking about as expected for Q1 (Sep) and FY03; believes that while overall tech and PC unit forecasts for 2003 might be too high, his MSFT estimates only assume a modest 3-5% PC unit growth rate, and he notes that licensing activities have been strong this qtr.
UK Court Dismisses Cibavision Patent Infringement Action Against Coopervision
Wednesday September 25, 12:31 pm ET
LAKE FOREST, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2002--The Cooper Companies, Inc., (NYSE:COO - News) said today that the judge in the patent infringement suit brought by CIBA Vision (UK) Limited against CooperVision Limited, the Company's contact lens unit in the United Kingdom, has concluded in his draft judgment that CooperVision's Frequency® Color contact lenses do not infringe Patent EP (UK) 015899B1, the "Knapp" patent, and that this patent is not valid in the United Kingdom.
Previously, CIBA Vision (UK) signed a Consent Order discontinuing its lawsuit in the United Kingdom for patent infringement against CooperVision under Patent EP (UK) 0498835, the "Jahnke" patent, and consented to an Order of the Court that the Jahnke patent be revoked in the United Kingdom.
In lawsuits continuing in the United States and France, CIBA Vision has claimed that CooperVision's Frequency (R) Colors and Expressions® opaque contact lenses infringe on certain CIBA Vision patents. These lenses change or enhance appearance of the eye color.
Cooper believes it does not infringe any of WJ's valid patent rights used in the development and manufacture of opaque lenses and continues to vigorously defend CIBA Vision's actions against it.
Corporate Information
The Cooper Companies, Inc. and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture and market specialty healthcare products. Corporate offices are located in Lake Forest and Pleasanton, Calif. A toll free interactive telephone system at 1-800-334-1986 provides stock quotes, recent press releases and financial data. Cooper's World Wide Web address is www.coopercos.com.
CooperVision, Inc., markets a broad range of contact lenses for the vision care market. Headquartered in Lake Forest, Calif., it manufactures in Huntington Beach, Calif., Rochester, N.Y., Norfolk, Va., Adelaide, Australia, Farnborough and Hamble, England, Madrid, Spain and Toronto. Its Web address is www.coopervision.com.
CooperSurgical, Inc., with operations in Trumbull, Conn., Fort Atkinson, Wis., Malmo, Sweden, Montreal and Berlin, markets diagnostic products, surgical instruments and accessories for the gynecological market. Its Web address is www.coopersurgical.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
The Cooper Companies, Inc., Lake Forest
Norris Battin, 888/822-2660
ir@coopercompanies.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020925/250242_1.html
Zeev, do you think Mosis be buying at lunch today?
RF Micro Devices Increases Current Quarter Revenue And Earnings Guidance
The Company Is Fully Booked For Sequential Revenue Growth Into The December Quarter
Tuesday September 24, 3:58 pm ET ...................
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020924/cgtu075_1.html
12:04 ET EDS expected to issue press release (EDS) 10.85 -6.52: -- Update -- Company's investor relations dept told Briefing.com that it would issue a press release; we're hearing that more recently company has said the release would be out in about 30 minutes; presumably the press release will address market concerns about exposure to derivative instruments mentioned in Merrill downgrade this morning (see 8:51 comment).
"I have been pretty fully loaded since."
Gee Zeev, I didn't know you were a drunk <gg>!
Hey, if you always got it 100% right, I doubt we'd be getting your market calls for free, now would we?
Tim Ö¿Ö
RESEARCH ALERT-Merrill cuts EDS rating to sell
Tuesday September 24, 10:42 am ET
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday it cut its stock rating for Electronic Data Systems Corp. (NYSE:EDS - News) to a "sell," saying it believes the computer services firm is facing a loss from its exposure to settle futures contracts.
Merrill said that EDS on Friday unwound obligations representing 3.7 million shares at a cash cost of $225 million that it had funded by issuing commercial paper.
"This move effectively eliminates EDS' free cash flow for '02, by our estimates," analyst Steve McClellan said in a statement.
McClellan said that having less cash could, in turn, impair EDS' ability to effectively compete for contracts, such as the large computer services contract currently up for grabs at financial services firm J.P Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM - News). Such large contracts typically require significant upfront investments. McClellan also said EDS may have to refinance an $800 million convertible debt offering in the coming year.
Shares of EDS were off more than 30 percent, or $5.07, at $11.45 in early trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020924/tech_eds_research1_1.html
11:38 ET New lows swamp new highs : Nasdaq has 4 new highs versus 266 new lows -- NYSE has 29 new highs versus 276 new lows.
11:07 ET U.S. lowers national terror threat to 'elevated' from 'high'
10:35 ET Market helped by Fed? : Hearing some talk that the market's resilience this morning is due in part to hopes for a Fed rate cut today. As we noted in our 7:26 comment, the admittedly small chance of a rate cut could indeed promp some buying today; traders might look at it as a low risk gamble: since no rate cut is expected, the downside isn't that great, while the short-term upside is quite good in the event of a surprise move. We still don't expect Fed action, but it's believable that some are taking a flier on it.
10:01 ET Consumer Confidence 93.3 in Sep vs 92.4 consensus (94.5 in August) :
Thanks Zeev, my entry in QCOM was @ $27.53 a few minutes ago. Buy more..... in volume
<edit> Got in QLGC here @ $27.02.
15:09 ET QLogic sells off following presentation (QLGC) 26.95 -1.59: We are hearing that QLGC just reaffirmed their previous Q3 forecast of 3-8% sequential rev growth during their presentation at the Banc of America investor conference; however, the stock has sold off in the last half hour as apparently the Street was expecting a higher number.
Qualcomm surges in late trade rally
Jabil jumps, 3Com slumps following earnings results
By Shawn Langlois, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 5:45 PM ET Sept. 19, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Qualcomm shares screamed 9 percent higher in Thursday's late session after the company said its seeing strong demand for chip orders.
Jabil and 3Com headed in opposite directions following their quarterly reports during a much-needed evening tech-stock revival.
The tech-laden Nasdaq-100 After Hours Indicator, which tracks the evening action of the index's leading stocks, moved up 7 at 873.
Earlier, the Nasdaq and the Dow closed right at the lows of the day, off 36 at 1,216 and down 230 at 7,942, respectively. See Market Snapshot.
Qualcomm, TriQuint push higher
Shares of Qualcomm (QCOM: news, chart, profile) jumped $2.33 from its close at $25.72 when the company updated its outlook for strong fourth quarter chip demand.
And TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT: news, chart, profile) added 14 percent after the communications chipmaker kept its third-quarter financial targets steady and said it expects fourth-quarter revenue flat to slightly higher sequentially with earnings of nil to a penny a share.
Jabil, 3Com, Tibco report
On the earnings front, shares of Jabil Circuit (JBL: news, chart, profile) jumped 4 percent after the contract manufacturer reported an in-line fourth-quarter profit on better-than-expected sales.
3Com (COMS: news, chart, profile) was one of the harder hit stocks in late trade as shares fell nearly 2 percent. The networking-equipment company reported a first-quarter net loss of 9 cents a share, or $32 million, on revenue of $305 million. Revenue was down 10 percent from the previous, and at the low end of 3Com's previous estimate range
Tibco Software (TIBX: news, chart, profile) posted a loss versus a profit a year earlier, citing a cutback on customer spending. The stock moved 11 percent higher following the announcement.
Late spotlight
Electronic Data Systems shares (EDS: news, chart, profile) stayed active but were little changed in the third market. The computer services firm lost half its value on the heels of its steep profit warning Wednesday, closing down $19.26 at $17.20. See full story.
Competitor IBM (IBM: news, chart, profile) touched on a new 52-week low of $64.65 in the early going and added a few cents after the bell. A bevy of Wall Street analysts, including Merrill Lynch, Lehman and Morgan Stanley, cut estimates on Big Blue in the wake of the EDS news.
Other tech notables Cisco (CSCO: news, chart, profile), Sun Micro (SUNW: news, chart, profile) and Intel (INTC: news, chart, profile) rounded out the Nasdaq most-actives in the early going with Sun taking the biggest beating in the group, down 30 cents at $2.70.
All three issues stayed busy on Island with minimal moves into positive territory.
Shawn Langlois is community editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&gui...
17:30 ET After Hours Indications : The late session tone is mixed. S&P futures at 843, trade one point below fair value while the Nasdaq 100 after hours indicator is higher by 6.8 points.
17:17 ET TriQuint Semi updates guidance for Q3 and Q4 (TQNT) 3.86 -0.20: Company "reaffirms" its forecast of revenue for Q3 in the range of $69 million to $74 million and operating income before special charges "near break even" for the quarter -- current Multex consensus estimates are for a net loss of $0.01 per share on revenues of $70.7 million. Sees Q4 earnings in the range of "breakeven to positive $0.01" vs the current consensus estimate of breakeven.
QQQ's @ $21.80 in AH. QCOM @ $27.70..... Make that $27.85.
16:38 ET 3Com beats by a penny (COMS) 4.22 -0.34: -- Update -- Reports Q1 pro forma loss of $0.03, $0.01 better than the Multex consensus; revs were $304.7 mln, vs consensus of $315.5 mln. Expects Q2 sales to decline sequentially by 5-8%.
16:11 ET Tektronix beats by 8 cents (TEK) 15.79 -0.70: -- Update -- Reports Q1 pro forma EPS of $0.15, $0.08 better than the Multex consensus; revs were $206.3 mln, vs consensus of $193.2 mln. Expects Q2 sales of to be down about 5% YoY (roughly in line with consensus of $200.0 mln).
16:09 ET Jabil Circuit beats by a penny; updates guidance (JBL) 16.67 -0.16: Reports Q4 (Aug) earnings of $0.15 per share, $0.01 better than the Multex consensus of $0.14; revenues rose 4.7% year/year to $988.2 mln vs the $946.8 mln consensus; the company estimates core earnings per share to be $0.14 to $0.16 for the first quarter vs the consensus estimate for earnings of $0.16 per share.
16:05 ET TIBCO Software beats by a penny (TIBX) 3.60 -0.20: Reports Q3 (Aug) net of breakeven, $0.01 better than the Multex consensus of ($0.01); Q3 revenues were $63.3 million vs the consensus estimate for revs of $63.3 million.
08:06 ET Cisco Systems: cautious comments from Lehman (CSCO) 12.50: Lehman says that checks suggest that demand trends so far in Sept have remained somewhat soft, and general visibility has remained limited in the enterprise area; from a regional perspective, the US may be flattish to slightly softer with Europe weak and Asia flattish; while early in the qtr, guidance of flat-to-slightly up sales could slip to flat-to-slightly lower. Separately, firm says recent channel checks suggests EXTR's Q3 is tracking broadly inline with expectations of flattish to very slightly up.
North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts August 2002 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.14
SAN JOSE, Calif., September 18, 2002 -- The North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.12 billion in orders in August 2002 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.14, according to the August 2002 Express Report published today by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI). A book-to-bill of 1.14 means that $114 worth of new orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
The three-month average of worldwide bookings in August 2002 was $1.12 billion. The bookings figure is 5 percent below the revised July 2002 level of $1.18 billion yet 57 percent above the $715 million in orders posted in August 2001.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in August 2002 was $981 million. The billings figure is 2 percent above the revised July 2002 level of $969 million and 14 percent below the August 2001 billings level of $1.14 billion.
"The decline in orders was anticipated considering recent announcements from chip and capital equipment manufacturers about the poor visibility for the semiconductor industry in the second half of this year," said Dan Tracy, Ph.D., director, Industry Research and Statistics for SEMI. "While bookings are considerably higher than one year ago, the overall order trend is not providing any signal of substantial further improvement this year."
The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving average bookings to three-month moving average billings for the North American semiconductor equipment industry. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
http://www.semi.org/web/wpress.nsf/33fa5c225257afa5882565e3006d9c77/38074a9dd75027bb88256c3800785a99...
16:37 ET Paychex beats by a penny (PAYX) 23.41 +0.17: Reports Q1 EPS of $0.20, $0.01 better than the Multex consensus; revs were $252.7 mln, vs consensus of $252.9 mln.
16:11 ET EDS warns for Q3 (EDS) 36.46 -1.30: -- Update -- Says it expects revenues and earnings for its third quarter "to be lower than previous company guidance" -- sees earnings in the range of $0.12-$0.15 per share vs the current Multex consensus estimate of $0.74 per share; sees revs of $5.3-$5.5 bln vs the current Multex consensus estimate of $5.7 bln. Note that several of the items cited for the warning appear to be one-time charges.
I see bullish people
http://jessel.100megsfree3.com/bullishpeople.jpg
West on brink of Iraq war
by Joe Murphy, Evening Standard
The US and Britain returned to the brink of war today as Saddam Hussein's dramatic promise to allow unfettered weapons inspections turned out to have strings attached.
Iraq made a surprise offer late last night to provide "unconditional access" to United Nations inspectors, raising hopes of a peaceful outcome to the Gulf crisis.
But today it emerged that the offer only applied to military bases - which could let Saddam hide chemical and biological arms stockpiles elsewhere.
That was not good enough for Downing Street, which insisted: "Inspectors must be allowed to go anywhere, anytime."
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged the world to beware of being tricked by Iraq. "We have had games played by Saddam Hussein for the best part of 12 years," he said after meeting the Prime Minister.
"One thing I know for certain about him is he only responds to sustained pressure from the United Nations."
Iraq seemed to have succeeded in opening cracks in the fragile international coalition, however. Although the United States dismissed his offer as a ploy, France and Germany promptly questioned the need for a fresh UN resolution setting a deadline for Iraq to comply with existing rules.
Other countries, too, which have previously been reluctant to back a war against Saddam, seized the opportunity to claim the crisis was all but over. Fears are growing of a split in the 15-member UN security council which will study the offer today.
Amid confusion, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear inspections body, declared it was ready to recommence its work "tomorrow" if the UN agreed.
The disclosure that restrictions were, after all, attached to Saddam's offer was made by the London ambassador of the Arab League which brokered the deal in the first place.
Ali Muhsen Hamid claimed Iraq was being sincere, but he stipulated that civilian sites would not be available to the inspectors. "We support anywhere, any military site (for inspections), but not as some people have suggested for inspections against hospitals, against schools."
Hospitals are among key sites for inspections because of evidence that Saddam uses health laboratories to manufacture viruses for biological weapons.
An Arab League spokesman said only military sites were covered because it would take 10 years for inspectors to examine civilian buildings, which would divert the UN's attention from making Iraq obey its resolutions. "If the US really wants to resolve this dispute it will welcome the offer," he added.
No10 pointed out that during the last, failed, round of inspections, the Iraqi president redesignated about half of his most secret military installations as " presidential palaces", ruling them out of bounds to inspectors.
Iraq capitalised on the disarray to mount a propaganda offensive. Tariq Aziz, Saddam's deputy prime minister, said the offer "thwarted" any reasons for a military attack. He added: "The aim of the American policies is the oil in the Gulf."
The Iraqi state news agency said Saddam may send a personal appeal to the UN within days.
Saddam made his offer in a letter presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan late last night after an emergency meeting of his security and diplomatic advisers.
Within minutes, the White House issued a statement scorning the promise as "a tactical step by Iraq in hopes of avoiding strong UN Security Council action".
"As such, it will fail," said spokesman Scott McClellan. "This is not a matter of inspections. It is about disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi regime's compliance with all other Security Council resolutions."
The concern in Washington is that support for military action will rapidly lose momentum. A State Department official described the offer as " a nightmare stalling technique".
Officials said planning for war would continue unchanged. But there was no longer any guarantee of a resolution ordering Iraq to disarm.
France was the first of the big five Security Council members to waver, suggesting that a new resolution be put on hold. And its top general flatly ruled out any preemptive strike against Saddam.
Armed forces chief General Jean-Pierre Kelche said an attack would bring chaos, adding: "We have to take him at his word."
Russia declared diplomacy had triumphed. Foreign minister Igor Ivanov said: "We have managed to deflect the threat of a military scenario and to steer the process back to a political channel."
A senior European Union official implied that the US was now out of line, saying: " The question now is whether the Americans will take 'yes' for an answer."
Under the 1991 Gulf war ceasefire terms, UN inspectors must verify the dismantling of Iraqi programmes for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and longrange missiles.
President Bush, whose stated policy is the ousting of Saddam, last week told the UN General Assembly that "action will be unavoidable" against Iraq unless the world body forced Baghdad to disarm.
Tony Blair had one consolation - a poll showing far greater support for military action in the wake of President Bush's speech.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/html/news.html
13:03 ET Bristol-Myers reaffirms 2002 guidance, inventory workdown on track (BMY) 25.60 -0.35: Reaffirms 2002 EPS guidance of $1.69-$1.81; co also confirmed its previous estimates that the domestic wholesaler inventory workdown will reduce diluted EPS by a total of about $0.61, and that nearly 90% of the total workdown impact will be achieved by year-end 2002, with avg inventory for the co's exclusive products at year end at or near desirable levels.
I'm sure Bush's first reaction was....... been there, done that...... got the T-shirt........
No doubt Bush's response will be appropriate & will firmly place the ball back in Iraq's court.
19:18 ET DKWD warning could hit other drug wholesalers : DKWD continues to get slammed following its warning, and is now down 51% after hours at 11.75; though DKWD is a small cap player in the drug wholesale sector, it will be interesting to see how its large cap competition fares in tomorrow's trading: ABC, MCK, and CAH; ABC would be the most exposed of the three to this business.
18:59 ET After Hours Indications : The futures rallied sharply after the news that Iraq had agreed to allow UN weapons inspectors to return without preconditions; S&P futures are 13.5 points above fair value and the Nasdaq futures are 10 pts above fair value. However, CNN is already reporting that the White House is "dismissive" of Iraq's statement as it does not address many other issues. This is a good news/bad news cycle that played out often in the run-up to the Gulf War, so we would once again note that it's premature to assume that the threat of war with Iraq is anywhere near an end.
18:37 ET Annan confirms weapons inspectors allowed to return : UN Secretary General Kofi Annan confirms that Iraq has told the UN that it will allow the return of UN weapons inspectors without preconditions.
18:34 ET Networks reporting that Iraq accepts UN weapons inspections : CNN and MSNBC reporting that Iraq will accept UN weapons inspectors, perhaps without preconditions, though details are still sketchy. Also, we would note that in the run-up to the Gulf War, Iraq sent many encouraging signals that were later withdrawn, so it is premature to assume that this news will avert an eventual attack.
SOX new LOD
13:26 ET Brocade slips to new 52-week low (BRCD) 11.47 -0.86: Storage sector name has broken down to a new 52-week low today. Possibly contributing to weakness in the stock is a Merrill Lynch morning note raising concerns about competitive and IT spending issues in the storage sector. Issues led Merrill to trim its FY03 est on BRCD to $0.51 from $0.53, which still leaves firm above the current Multex consensus of $0.50. Based on the new estimate, Merrill believes BRCD has upside potential to the $29 area.
Looks like you got your QCOM @ $27.50 Zeev.
11:13 ET Another ugly day in Semis : Semiconductor names again dominating the new 52-week low as group breaks down to its worst levels in almost 4 years. Among the names on the new low list today are MU, BRCM, CY, CHRT, NSM, BRCM, AMD, ATML, AMCC, STM, LLTC, MXIM, MCRL, VSEA, PWAV, IFX, TQNT, UMC, MCHP... Micron (MU 15.98 -0.52) is one of the few names on the list making a new low for the first time this month. Stock falls to its lowest level since June 26.
11:03 ET Semiconductor names edge to lowest level since November '98 : -- Technical -- SOX drops to its lowest level since November 1998. Currently trading just over 270, look for initial support at 268 which represents the lower end of its 10-day Bollinger bands. To the upside, watch for initial resistance at 274 followed by subsequent overhead at 278. Sector components contributing to the weakness include: LLTC, ALTR, MXIM, TXN, NSM.
13:49 ET InVision -- Volume alert (INVN) 35.70 +1.94: Stock breaks out to best levels since April. The 5.7% move is occurring on volume of 1.75 mln, or almost 2x avg daily turnover. Yesterday, Briefing.com reported that INVN was rising on rumor that LLL (+2.1%) has been in talks to acquire INVN.
13:05 ET Dollar rallies vs euro, yen : The dollar has rallied strongly today (2 yen and 1 cent against the euro), which is getting some notice on trading floors and may be a slight positive for equities this afternoon. We're hearing many stories behind the dollar's rise, none of which is that persuasive. Japanese Vice Finance Minister Kuroda hinted at yen sales last night, but these comments came hours before the dollar's rally, and would make sense if we were seeing yen weakness rather than dollar strength. Strong Retail Sales are also being cited, even though bonds are rallying on talk of weak consumer sentiment. Our guess is that the dollar's rise is due to a number of factors, not the least of which that the fundamentals of the US economy still appear more sound than those of Japan or Europe.
16:43 ET Adobe Systems beats by three cents (ADBE) 18.45 -0.73: -- Update -- Reports Q3 (Aug) earnings of $0.22 per share, $0.03 better than the Multex consensus of $0.19; revenues fell 2.5% year/year to $284.9 mln vs the $276.0 mln consensus; sees Q4 earnings in the range of $0.21-$0.25 per share vs the current consensus estimate for earnings of $0.22 per share.
16:21 ET Honeywell guides lower for Q3 (HON) 28.34 -0.18: Company sees Q3 earnings in the range of $0.50-$0.0.50 per share vs the current consensus estimate for earnings of $0.60 per share.