Earnings reports from HP and Applied Materials
will headline a busy couple of days on Wall Street.
Investors will be watching HP’s results closely when the company reports Tuesday after the close. Shares of HP tumbled in August after the company warned of disappointing results, and analysts were quick to criticize the company’s faltering execution.
Analysts expect HP to report earnings of 37 cents a share on revenues of $21.15 billion, up 7% from a year ago. Server and storage sales will be key, as will sales of an HP-branded iPod, and analysts will also be watching printer sales in light of competition from Dell .
Shares of HP are down 15% this year, compared to a 4% gain for the Nasdaq.
Also Tuesday night, Network Appliance will report its quarterly results, followed by Applied Materials after the close on Wednesday. Analysts are looking for earnings of 26 cents a share from AMAT on sales of $2.29 billion. NetApp is expected to earn 14 cents a share on revenues of $372.7 million.
Also on Tuesday and Wednesday, investors will get a look at wholesale and retail inflation data for October, along with earnings from retail giants Wal-Mart and Home Depot
.
The Nasdaq rose 8 points Monday to 2094, the S&P 500 slipped a fraction to 1183, and the Dow gained 11 to 10,550. Volume declined to 1.45 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.9 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 18-14 on the NYSE, and 17-13 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 54% on the NYSE, and 73% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 424-9 on the NYSE, and 246-32 on the Nasdaq.
Microsoft rose 2% as it went ex-dividend, reflecting the price of a $3 a share dividend payable on Dec. 2.
Google edged higher a day before 39 million shares come out of lockup and available for sale, more than twice the number of shares currently on the market.
Sun Microsystems rose 5% on news of a new Solaris operating system.
Marketwatch gained 8% on news that it will be acquired by Dow Jones
.
Red Hat and Instinet
surged 13% each on upgrades.
Micromuse soared 21% after beating estimates, while Global Crossing
declined 3% on a widening loss.
Lucent gained 4% on hopes for a deal with Cingular.
