| Market Summary |
Mammoth retailer Wal-mart weighed down the market today, as a cut in its sales forecast cast a pall over sentiment which overshadowed
a two-session pullback in oil prices. The Dow component's reading of disappointing back-to-school demand questioned the strength
of consumer spending in a key shopping season... the Nasdaq did outperform on a relative basis, due to the gains in the tech
sector... volume was at a trickle throughout the day, never really picking up...
Consumer staple, telecom, and material are now trading noticeably lower and weighing heavily on the indices' movement... just about every tech sector, especially internet, has headed higher, with Google remaining strong... oil prices slipped as Iraq resumed exports, despite fighting in Najaf... Kmart finalized the sale of 18 stores to Home Depot, while Britain's ARM Holdings agreed to buy Artisan Components... FedEx raised earnings outlook today, and saw its shares increase by 2.6%... There is still no resolution to the standoff in the Iraqi town of Najaf between militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi and U.S. armed forces... the situation in Iraq could dictate whether oil will hit $50 or fall back to $40…
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| Market News |
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, lowered its sales forecast for August, citing slow back-to-school sales and the effects of Hurricane Charley. Its shares fell nearly 2 percent.
Wal-Mart had previously expected same-store sales to grow between 2 percent and 4 percent during the month. It advised Monday that the sales will range from flat to up 2 percent versus a year ago. The deck was stacked in that Wal-Mart's sales last August, which were up 6.9 percent in stores open at least a year, included the Labor Day holiday and came at a time when consumers were still spending child-care tax credit refund checks. (Source: ABC News) Full Story
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British semiconductor designer ARM Holdings Plc agreed to buy U.S. chip components firm Artisan for $913 million, to boost its product range, but ARM shares slumped on Monday on concerns it had overpaid.
Artisan Components Inc. stockholders will receive $9.60 in cash and ARM stock equal to 4.41 ARM American Depositary Shares (ADS) for each outstanding Artisan share, ARM said.
Artisan provides designs for components used in complex system-on-a-chip integrated circuits that can help reduce power consumption and shrink the size of devices such as mobile phones and portable media players.
Its shares were up 15.9 percent at $27.68 in early New York trade. (Source: Reuters) Full Story
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Wall Street may be concerned, but FedEx doesn't see the economic recovery petering out, as the shipper raised earnings guidance for the upcoming quarter and fiscal year because demand for its products remains high.
The Memphis, Tenn.-based company now expects to earn $1 to $1.10 a share for the quarter ending Aug. 31 and $4.40 to $4.60 a share for fiscal 2005. Previously, it had expected quarterly EPS of 90 cents to $1 a share and full-year 2005 earnings of $4.20 to $4.40 a share.
The new guidance tops the consensus forecasts of 95 cents for the upcoming quarter… (Source: TheStreet.com) Full Story
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| Market Analysis |
Pension funds and other long-term investors are playing a far greater role in this year's oil surge than previously thought as they plough cash into outperforming commodity markets, traders and analysts said on Monday.
A sustained push into oil markets by long-term buy-and-hold investment funds has helped push prices to record peaks near $50 a barrel.
And the holdings of big-money vehicles like pension funds may be even bigger than thought. Part of their activity is being masked by their use of intermediaries such as oil traders or big banks, which are classified differently in regulatory data.
(Source: Reuters) Full Story
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White House, labor groups argue whether regulations now in effect are boon or bane to workers.
Controversial new rules regarding overtime pay went into effect Monday, with the Bush administration and labor advocates squabbling over how many U.S. workers are affected. The changes mark the first major overhaul of the federal overtime law in more than 50 years. The Labor Department says the new rules will strengthen overtime rights for 6.7 million American workers, including 1.3 million low-wage workers who were denied overtime under the old rules. (Source: CNN/Money) Full Story
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Report: Search firm is worst offender in S&P 500 index. Google Inc. ranks lower in corporate governance than any company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, according to influential proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services, the Financial Times said on Monday. ISS, which advises shareholders on how to vote, found 21 weaknesses in the governance practices of Mountain View, California-based Google, which is expected to join the S&P 500, the newspaper said.
These flaws, it said, include a dual-class capital structure that gives effective control to insiders, too few outside directors, a lack of stock ownership guidelines for executives and independent directors, a compensation plan that lets the company reprice stock options if the stock price falls, and... (Source: MSNBC) Full Story
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