Shares of Microsoft and Google
fell late Thursday after the two bellwethers delivered results and guidance that were less than investors were hoping for.
Google reported second-quarter earnings of $1.19 a share on net revenues of $890 million, trouncing estimates handily. But the stock fell 6% in after-hours trading after the company reminded analysts on a conference call that the third quarter is historically its weakest. That caught analysts by surprise, since the company doesn’t give guidance.
Microsoft reported pro forma earnings of 33 cents a share, beating estimates by two cents. But the software giant’s sales rose 9% to $10.16 billion, just shy of $10.17 billion estimates.
Microsoft forecast September-quarter revenues of $9.7-$9.8 billion, which would be below $9.92 billion estimates. Microsoft raised its fiscal 2006 forecast, but its shares traded 2% lower after hours.
Also after the close, Broadcom , Scientific Atlanta
and SanDisk
beat estimates, and Xilinx
met estimates.
Stocks fell during the day after China revalued its currency and London was hit by more terrorist attacks.
The Nasdaq lost 9 to 2178, the S&P declined 8 to 1227, and the Dow fell 61 to 10,627. Volume rose to 2.13 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.1 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 22-10 on the NYSE, and 19-11 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 76% on the NYSE, and 54% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 245-21 on the NYSE, and 159-13 on the Nasdaq.
eBay soared 20% on earnings and guidance that were well ahead of Wall Street expectations.
Qualcomm , Ericsson
, Cirrus
and Macromedia
rose on their results.
Nokia fell 11% after missing estimates, and QLogic
, VeriSign
, EMC
, F5
and Lam Research
fell on their results.