Stocks were mixed Monday ahead of earnings reports from some of the biggest names in technology.
Intel and Yahoo
will report their quarterly results after the close on Tuesday, followed by eBay
on Wednesday, and Google
, Microsoft
, IBM
and AMD
on Thursday.
That lineup should give investors a good sense of the current state of technology and Internet spending. Traders will also be watching wholesale and consumer inflation reports on Tuesday and Wednesday, so the next few days will be active ones for the stock market.
Intel is expected to report earnings of 19 cents a share on a 6.6% jump in sales to $8.54 billion. Analysts will also be watching margins for any effect from Intel’s ongoing price war with AMD. Yahoo, meanwhile, is expected to report earnings of 11 cents a share on a 10.7% revenue increase to $1.24 billion. Analysts will be watching to see if Yahoo’s new search ad platform is helping it gain traction against Google.
Stocks stalled Monday as the Dow flirted with the 14,000 level for the first time and the S&P 500 once again failed to close above its March 2000 high of 1552.87.
Verizon gained on reports of interest from Vodafone
, while Syntax-Brillian
jumped after raising sales guidance.
The Nasdaq lost 9 to 2697, the S&P 500 lost 3 to 1549, and the Dow gained 43 to 13,950. Volume declined to 2.7 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 1.82 billion on the Nasdaq. Declining issues led by a 21-10 margin on the NYSE, and 19-10 edge on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 64% on the NYSE, and 60% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 250-105 on the NYSE, and 228-88 on the Nasdaq.