Adobe started out a big week for earnings reports on an upbeat note, posting better than expected results and guidance late Monday.
Adobe’s 34% rise in quarterly sales to $911 million was well above Wall Street forecasts, and earnings of 49 cents a share were a penny better than expected. The company also raised first quarter earnings and sales guidance and said it will buy back an additional 30 million shares, yet Adobe shares were little changed after hours after declining 2.9% during the day.
The software maker cited strong sales of Creative Suite 3 for the results.
This week will also see earnings reports from Oracle on Wednesday and Research in Motion and Micron Technology on Thursday, plus several important quarterly report cards from some of Wall Street’s biggest brokerage firms.
RIM and Micron fell more than 5% each Monday on another rough day for stocks, as investors wondered if a Federal Reserve credit auction this week will be enough to stem a credit market meltdown and prevent the U.S. economy from heading into a recession. Investors will know more Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eastern, when auction results will be released.
Rambus gained 2.5% on a licensing deal with Toshiba, and Orbitz jumped 12% on a Lehman Brothers upgrade.
Amazon fell 4.5% on reports of weaker than expected online sales.
The Nasdaq lost 61 to 2574, the S&P fell 22 to 1445, and the Dow tumbled 172 to 13,167. Volume rose to 3.57 billion shares on the NYSE, and slipped to 1.93 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 27-6 margin on the NYSE, and 24-6 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 79% on the NYSE, and 88% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 28-388 on the NYSE, and 46-330 on the Nasdaq.
