Nadat Greenspan zijn speach begon voelde Wall Street de positieve tonen in zijn rede. De rente kan laag blijven en de economie kan verder groeien. Ook zei hij dat er snel jobs komen. Comcast wil Disney kopen voor 66 miljard, vorig jaat kocht dit bedrijf al een bedrijf voor 78 miljard zodat indien de overname slaagt er voor 140 miljard werd uitgegeven. Comcast zet 18 miljard om per jaar!!
Greenspan verwacht nieuwe banen en sterke groei, wanneer?
De rente kan laag blijven.
Of dit positieve scenario haalbaar is valt te betwijfelen. Tot nog toe kwamen er nog amper jobs bij.
- 18:20 ET Wednesday After Hours : - prices levels vs. 4 pm ET: Buyers have disappeared into the woodwork following this session's rally - which sent the Dow to its best levels since June 2001 - off Fed Chairman Greenspan's testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. The FOMC head confirmed that the economy was strengthening, and that inflation remained low enough to allow the central back to remain 'patient' in raising rates. As of now, the buying frenzy has died down with the S&P futures, at 1156, 1 point below fair value, and the Nasdaq 100 futures, at 1516, 3 points below fair value. Tonight's corporate announcements have come from a wide array of companies, and the below table lists the more notable news items.
- Computer Sciences (CSC) -5%: - Computer services company beats the bottom-line consensus estimate by a penny, but comes up short on revenues in its Q3 (Dec) repo rt; Management says FY04 (Mar) EPS will be $2.80-2.84 versus the consensus of $2.83; Investors remain unimpressed and take profits from the stock's 5%, 5-day move.
- Sonus Networks (SONS) -22% : - Telecommunications equipment maker says that its auditors are investigating how previous revenues were reported, a move that could affect the company's results for 2003 and past years; SONS had sold off 11% in today's regular session in a move Briefing.com highlighted on In-Play.
- Brocade (BRCD) +3% : - Computer storage device maker tops the Q1 (Jan) Reuters Research EPS estimate by a penny on revenues that rose 18% to $145.0 mln; Company notes this was the 4th consecutive quarter of improved revenue, gross margin and operating margin; In Briefing.com's earnings preview on In-Play, we profiled two brokerage firms that expected BRCD to come in above estimates
- 15:38 ET Bond Market Summary : - Treasuries saw a strong, sustained rally following the release of Greenspan's testimony text, and were able to follow-through and continue to push higher well into the House member Q&A. The market had been looking for fairly gung-ho, pro-economy commentary, and was surprised by the even tone taken and the acknowledgement that there are some potential stumbling blocks. With an agile tongue and restrained terminology, Mr. G was able to offer a little something to all markets, with the treasuries taking the opportunity to make the tale all about low rates. The chairman was able to finesse the statement that rates would someday, at some future point, have to rise, somewhat, without offering a timeframe. The five-year auction was well received, seeing a bid to cover of 2.84, well above the previous 2.51 and showing continued healthy demand from foreign central banks. The market looks ahead to tomorrow's ten-year auction and Greenspan's Senate testimony. There will likely be very little change in the prepared text, but the Q&A could toss a wrench in the rational exuberance of the treasuries. Ten-year yields spent some time beneath 4% and are currently +23/32nds yielding 4.023%; twos are +06/32nds yielding 1.705%; threes are +10/32nds yielding 2.234%; fives are +17/32nds yielding 2.999%; thirties are +27/32nds yielding 4.896%.
- 15:01 ET NT Color 8.08 +0.25: - Original source of the chatter that Nortel (NT) is close to inking a VoIP deal with AT&T appears to be a Prudential Equity Group comment out pre-market yesterday. Firm said its proprietary channel checks suggest Nortel is well positioned to win VoIP contracts with other large carriers and this work may include VoIP business with AT&T in the
U.S. - 14:11 ET Floor Talk: - JPM for SCH chatter : Rumor of a possible JP Morgan bid for Charles Schwab (+5.1%) is on trading floors. After checking around on this rumor, institutional contacts are highlighting some of the obvious points that would make such a deal unlikely. One contact suggests that institutions would "strongly question" JP Morgan (+2%) for taking their eyes off the Bank One acquisition. It is also noted that Schwab is still in the process of digesting the SoundView acquisition, and that while this deal may have made sense in the past, seems less of a possibility now.
- 12:06 ET High Short Interest Point Gainers : - PCLN +3.40 (Short Interest 24% of the float), SLAB +2.06 (12% of the float), GIVN +2.62 (11% of the float), NVTL +3.41 (10% of the float), LSCP +2.23 (10% of the float), CLF +5.30 (8% of the float), DKS +3.89 (7% of the float), TSCO +0.99 (5% of the float), ACDO +2.27 (5% of the float), ZBRA +3.37 (4% of the float).
- 11:19 ET: - Dow spikes
60 pts following Greenspan comments : - 11:11 ET Fed Testimony : - Treasuries saw a healthy run-up on the testimony text release, which refers to good prospects for sustained growth (the Fed forecasts growth as strong as 5% in 2004). The unemployment rate is expected to end the year in a 5.25%-5.5% range, as inflation remains benign, and with the Fed expecting the PCE price index in a 1%-1.25% range in 2004. Bottom line on policy: current interest rate level is "appropriate", with no sense of timing for a turn in policy direction. While Greenspan notes that low inflation allows patience on policy rates, the obvious caveat followed -- the Fed cannot keep rates unchanged indefinitely. Ten-years are now +12/32nds yielding 4.064%.
- 11:10 ET Floor Talk: - JCOM Follow-up 23.90 +1.43: As noted in the 10:12 comment, we had some skepticism regarding this morning's takeover rumor. Additional checks on both buy and sell side met serious pessimism with regard to there being a bidder kicking the tires for the company. The general consensus suggests that this rumor has no validity. However, given the heavy retail nature of this stock, possibility seen that the takeover rumor finds a life of its own.
- 11:06 ET : - Dollar falls across the board on Greenspan comments -- Dow Jones :
- 11:01 ET: - Greenspan: Fed can remain "patient" with faster growth :
- 10:09 ET Floor Talk : It has come across our attention that speculation currently exists over Kodak possibly looking into SanDisk as an acquisition candidate. However, further checks with sell side desks suggest this prognostication is far fetched and wishful thinking if that.
- 09:05 ET: - Comcast Call on Disney bid : Comcast sites two main reasons for merger; 1) bring DIS back to prominence and 2) the value opportunities for combined companies in areas for kids (animation, theme parks, etc), sports, news and film.
- 08:02 ET: - Hearing same newsletter that caused weakness in ELAB yesterday is saying sell DRAX, TEVA and TWX :
Guy Boscart