Market Update: Investors Spooked by Hewlett-Packard's Earnings Miss
Whoa! The bell wrung to open trading this morning and the
Nasdaq Composite Index fell below 3000, its lowest level in more than a year.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average, stocked with blue-chip stocks, was also down triple digits.
Seems there's little place to hide.
Blame it on the election uncertainty. But blame it mostly on
Hewlett-Packard
(HWP)
. The computer and imaging giant was tumbling 15.2% to $33.19 after reporting that it
missed fourth-quarter earnings by 10 cents a share. That's not a small miss. Estimates were for the company to make 51 cents a share.
H-P wasn't scheduled to announce earnings until Wednesday. The missed earnings follow the company's announcement on September 22 that it would meet fourth-quarter
earnings and revenue targets. The company also today said it ended talks to acquire the consulting arm of
PricewaterhouseCoopers
. H-P's stock had tumbled earlier this fall when those negotiations were first reported.
The news from H-P was not what the
Philadelphia Stock Exchange Computer Box Maker Index
TheStreet Recommends
needed to hear today. The index, which tracks the stocks of computer makers, was lately down 3.9%. Last week, the sector was hit by
Dell's
(DELL) - Get Dell Technologies Inc. Class C Report
news that it had a
weak sales outlook. Investors haven't been hearing much good news from computer makers.
The jitters that H-P is sending through the market are a reflection of the general concern about slowing growth in tech companies. And since the Nasdaq is heavy with technology names, it got socked all around. Internet companies
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
and
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Amazon.com Inc. Report
, as well as software companies
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Sunworks Inc. Report
and
Intuit
(INTU) - Get Intuit Inc. Report
, are all trading lower.
Meanwhile, the stocks that were bouncing last week on anticipation of a George W. Bush victory were tanking today. Pharmaceutical companies
Merck
(MRK) - Get Merck & Company Inc. Report
and
Johnson & Johnson
(JNJ) - Get Johnson & Johnson Report
were lower, as was tobacco stock
Philip Morris
(MO) - Get Altria Group Inc. Report
.
"The market has priced in a high probability of a Bush win. We think the market should and probably will reconsider the probabilities it has assigned to Bush and Gore wins. Especially vulnerable are drug and HMO stocks," wrote political analyst Tom Gallagher of research boutique
ISI
.
Seperately,
Watson Pharmaceuticals
(WPI)
jumped close to 12% after the company reported third-quarter earnings that were in line with lowered expectations because of lower than expected product sales related to its recent acquisition of Schein Pharmaceutical. The company said its upcoming quarter would be strong.
Back to top
Sector Watch
The
Philadelphia Stock Exchange Forest & Paper Products Index
was bouncing 3.5% on news of a proposed merger between two of the stocks that comprise the index.
Weyerhaeuser
(WY) - Get Weyerhaeuser Company Report
offered to buy
Willamette
(WLL) - Get Whiting Petroleum Corporation (New) Report
in a $7 billion cash deal, including $1.7 billion worth of Willamette's debt. Willamette's board met, but failed to act on the proposal. Still, Willamette shot up 31.3% to $45.56. Weyerhaeuser was lately off 2.8%.
With most other sectors of the market in the red, financials were in a particularly bad way. The
American Stock Exchange Broker/Dealer Index
was down 4%, while the
Philadelphia Stock Exchange/KBW Bank Index
fell 2.9% lower. The
S&P Insurance Index
lately lost 2%.
J.P. Morgan
(JPM) - Get JP Morgan Chase & Co. Report
was lately off 3.7%.
Back to top
Bonds/Economy
Bonds were maintaining their positive tone of last week because the fixed-income market is benefiting from a run of soft economic data, the rush away from equities and the stalemate in Florida.
The benchmark 10-year
Treasury note is at 99 30/32, up 9/32, to yield 5.759%.
The 30-year
Treasury bond is at 105 27/32, up 17/32, to yield 5.833%.
Back to top
