Yi Ping Ho
Jubilant investors showered green confetti on stocks tonight after Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) and Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) sprung pleasant surprises on Wall Street after the bell.
The party was a crowded one. The Nasdaq 100(QQQ Quote - Cramer on QQQ - Stock Picks), which tends to stay flat in the after hours, recently gained 4.9% to $43.00 on Instinet. Indeed, volume was beefy as over a million shares of both Microsoft and Yahoo were trading by 5 p.m. EDT. Mr. Softee, which forecast higher fourth-quarter revenue after the close, was lately the most heavily traded outfit on Instinet, gaining 5.9% to $70.45 from its finish of $66.50 on the Nasdaq
.
Microsoft, which recently scored a legal victory in the appeals court that allowed it to remain one company, said fourth-quarter sales would be between $6.5 billion to $6.6 billion, compared with its previous guidance of $6.3 billion to $6.5 billion. Mr. Softee also reiterated fourth-quarter earnings expectations, with earnings per share of one cent, including charges, but said it expects a net investment loss of $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, Internet portal Yahoo!, whose second-quarter earnings
squeaked by analysts' expectations by a penny, recently soared 12.2% to $19.10 on Instinet, and 12.4% to $19.14 on Island ECN. Yahoo!, which fell 4.5% to $17.03 ahead of its earnings report, posted second-quarter earnings of $8.7 million, or one cent a share, compared with $69.2 million, or 11 cents a share, in the year ago period. Analysts on Thomson Financial/First Call expected the company to break even. The one-cent edge was enough for the late-day players, who also lifted Yahoo's Internet and media compatriot AOL Time Warner(AOL Quote - Cramer on AOL - Stock Picks) up 3.1% to $50.01 on Instinet. AOL Time Warner said earlier today it was cutting about 30 employees, or roughly 3% of the workers, in America Online's interactive marketing division, according to a published report. Web auctioneer eBay (EBAY Quote - Cramer on EBAY - Stock Picks) rose 4.8% to $63.06 on Instinet. And calling in with its numbers, Motorola (MOT Quote - Cramer on MOT - Stock Picks)
posted its second consecutive quarterly operating loss, citing the wobbly conditions of the telecom and semiconductor industries. The mobile phone giant reported a loss of $232 million, or 11 cents a share, excluding items, compared with $551 million, or 25 cents a share, in the same period last year. Still, the stock gained 5.9% to $16.60 on Instinet in the midst of the general bullishness. Rival handset maker Nokia(NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks) was up 6.9% to $19.25 on Instinet. Adding to the action, Redback Networks(RBAK Quote - Cramer on RBAK - Stock Picks) rose 11.0% to $7.25 on Island after it beat the Street's revised loss-per-share estimates for the second-quarter. The provider of products for broadband and optical networks lost $37 million, or 26 cents a share, excluding charges. Analysts on average lowered their estimates to a loss of 29 cents a share after the company warned in late June that it would lose between 27 cents and 32 cents a share. Revenue totaled $59.4 million, up from the $48.7 million it raked in during the same period in the prior year, but still well short of the Street's previous projection. Rival networkers were also up; Sonus Networks (SONS Quote - Cramer on SONS - Stock Picks) recently climbed 15.9% to $21.93 on Island, and Juniper Networks (JNPR Quote - Cramer on JNPR - Stock Picks) moved up 8.9% to $26.70. While the night's advancers outdid the decliners, the biotech sector was in the red after IDEC Pharmaceuticals (IDPH Quote - Cramer on IDPH - Stock Picks) admitted its U.S. net sales of Rituxan, a drug for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, grew at a slower pace than anticipated in the second quarter. Its shares fell 21.2% to $48.47 on Island. Genentech (DNA Quote - Cramer on DNA - Stock Picks), which co-markets Rituxan, also took a hit, dropping 6.4% to $40.00 on Instinet. After the close, Genentech reported that its earnings were in line with the Street's expectations of 19 cents a share. Amgen (AMGN Quote - Cramer on AMGN - Stock Picks) was off 1.8% to $56.00 on Instinet. All in all, the extant earnings cheer lifted many stocks tonight, including tech titans like Cisco (CSCO Quote - Cramer on CSCO - Stock Picks), Intel (INTC Quote - Cramer on INTC - Stock Picks) and Oracle (ORCL Quote - Cramer on ORCL - Stock Picks). | 10 most active stocks on Island ECN ( 6:00 p.m. EDT) | |||
| Company | Price | Change | Session Volume |
| Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) | 19.14 | +2.11 | 1,107,671 |
| Nasdaq 100 (QQQ Quote - Cramer on QQQ - Stock Picks) | 43.00 | n.a. | 909,082 |
| Redback Networks (RBAK Quote - Cramer on RBAK - Stock Picks) | 7.25 | +0.72 | 381,926 |
| Sonus Networks (SONS Quote - Cramer on SONS - Stock Picks) | 21.93 | +3.00 | 279,418 |
| IBeam Broadcasting ( IBEM Quote - Cramer on IBEM - Stock Picks) | 0.42 | +0.03 | 266,495 |
| Microsoft ( MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) | 70.50 | +4.00 | 249,409 |
| Sun Microsystems (SUNW Quote - Cramer on SUNW - Stock Picks) | 14.82 | +0.84 | 213,189 |
| JDS Uniphase (JDSU Quote - Cramer on JDSU - Stock Picks) | 11.55 | +0.59 | 208,417 |
| Cisco Systems (CSCI Quote - Cramer on CSCI - Stock Picks) | 17.82 | +1.12 | 207,573 |
| IDEC Pharmaceuticals (IDEC Quote - Cramer on IDEC - Stock Picks) | 48.65 | -12.83 | 187,607 |
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After the Close Wednesday
Wednesday's Economic Data
(Forecasts are from Reuters. Times are Eastern. For a longer-term economic calendar and more, see TSC's Economic Databank.)- 8:30 a.m.: Initial Jobless Claims
for the week ended July 7. Source:
Labor Department. Forecast: 398,000. Previous: 399,000. 
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