|
|
Intel narrows revenue forecast...May jobs data seen weak...Stocks rise
San Jose, California-AP -- Intel has narrowed its second-quarter revenue forecast, saying sales of microprocessors were at the high end of normal while demand for communications chips remains soft. The world's largest semiconductor company now expects revenues to be between six-point-six (b) billion and six-point-eight (b) billion dollars. That's compared to its previous forecast of between six-point-four (b) billion and seven (b) billion dollars.
The company does not release earnings forecasts. But analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expect Intel to earn 13 cents per share on revenues of six-point-six (b) billion dollars.
Shares of Intel closed 46 cents higher, to 21 dollars, 84 cents, in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. After its midquarter update was released, the stock slipped in the extended session, but then rebounded.
(Washington-AP) -- The May jobs data are expected to be weak.
The market consensus forecast is for a one-tenth of a percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, to a reading of six-point-one percent.
In addition, economists are looking for a decline in payrolls, but the expectations run in a range. The consensus as quoted by the financial Web site Briefing-dot-com is for a drop of 30-thousand. Although Briefing's own economists are looking for a decline of 50-thousand.
The median estimate of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and business news channel C-N-B-C is for a 25-thousand decline in payrolls.
The Labor Department is due to release the May jobs report at 8:30 a-m Eastern time.
(New York-AP) -- Wall Street's rally rolls on, if gently so.
Investors set aside disappointing employment data and lackluster retail sales reports yesterday (Thursday), sending stocks modestly higher and keeping stocks at their highest levels in months.
The small gains sustained a rally that drove the Dow Jones industrial average on Wednesday to its first close above nine-thousand in nearly ten months. The Dow finished virtually even yesterday (Thursday) but the number of advancing issues significantly outnumbered decliners.
The Dow closed up two points at nine-thousand-41.
The broader market also finished higher. The Nasdaq composite gained eleven points to 16-hundred-46. The Standard and Poor's 500 index was up almost four points to 990.
At the end of yesterday's (Thursday's) trading, the Dow had risen 20 percent, the Nasdaq had gained 29 and a-half percent and the S-and-P had climbed almost 24 percent since March eleventh, the market's most recent low point.
(New York-AP) -- The New York Stock Exchange has approved sweeping governance reforms.
The Big Board's top three officials will no longer be allowed to sit on boards of exchange-listed companies. Also, the pay of senior officials, including chairman and C-E-O Richard Grasso, will be published in the exchange's annual report. That's something the N-Y-S-E hasn't done in the past because it is a private entity.
The changes also address who can sit on the exchange's own board of directors.
The action follows a series of corporate scandals and flurry of new laws and regulations aimed at restoring investor trust. It comes amid growing concern about conflicts of interest and poor governance at the exchange itself.
Grasso came under fire recently for his position as board member at The Home Depot. That company's lead director was head of the N-Y-S-E's compensation committee, which awarded Grasso a controversial pay package of ten (m) million dollars amid the sluggish economy.
(Undated-AP) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged former Xerox chief executive Paul Allaire and five ex-Xerox executives with civil securities fraud. The charges stem from accounting methods that the regulator says overstated earnings for the copier maker.
The S-E-C says the six men settled the civil suit with a 22 (m) million dollar payment that includes penalties and forfeiting profits. The S-E-C says the men did not admit to or deny the allegations.
The complaint accused the ex-officials of using improper accounting methods to increase equipment revenue and inflate earnings.
Regulators say the accounting methods were not disclosed to investors.
A spokeswoman for Xerox says the company has completely changed management in the past two years.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
