IBM and Yahoo
beat Wall Street estimates with room to spare after the close on Tuesday.
Big Blue’s earnings of $1.81 a share topped forecasts by a nickel, and revenues rose 6.8% to $27.67 billion, also exceeding consensus estimates. Software and services revenues were stronger than expected, and the company said 2005 estimates are “reasonable.”
Yahoo’s earnings of 13 cents a share beat estimates by 2 cents, and net revenues after traffic acquisition costs surged 54% to $785 million, ahead of $754.3 million estimates. Yahoo’s forward guidance was also generally better than anticipated.
Both stocks edged higher in after-hours trading.
Also after the close, Motorola beat estimates but offered mixed guidance. Juniper
and Check Point
topped forecasts. AMD
reported mixed results following a warning last week, and Rambus
missed estimates.
Stocks rose during the day on strong results from financial companies.
The Nasdaq rose 18 to 2106, the S&P 500 climbed 11 to 1195, and the Dow gained 70 to 10,628. Volume rose to 1.6 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 2 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 22-10 on the NYSE, and 19-11 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 76% on the NYSE, and 68% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 164-23 on the NYSE, and 104-24 on the Nasdaq.
51job plunged 35% on a warning, while JDS Uniphase
was unchanged after the company lowered guidance.
CNT fell 15% after McData
acquired the company for less than investors expected.
Ameritrade and Schwab
climbed on better than expected results, while 1-800-Flowers.com
slipped on in-line results.