“U.S. stocks are set to open lower Wednesday, driven downward by a less-than-positive report from Dow component Intel Corp. Also Wednesday, the Consumer Prices Index rose by 0.5 percent in March, the Labor department reported, raising questions about whether the seeds of unwanted inflation are being sown,” The Associated Press reports.
“Late Tuesday, Intel missed analysts’ per-share expectations for the quarter by a penny despite an 89 percent increase in net profit; earnings rose to 26 cents a share from 14 cents a share a year earlier. The bellwether chip maker’s revenue grew by just 20 percent in the quarter ended March 27, and the company predicted slightly lower sales for the current quarter than some analysts forecast,” AP reports.
“The downbeat Intel numbers drove markets downward around the world. In London, the FTSE 100 Index fell 48.3 points recently, to 4,467.5. France’s CAC Index declined 49.06 points, and Germany’s Xetra Dax traded down 66.44 points,” AP reports.
Apple will announce its 2nd Qtr. 2004 financial results after the markets close today. Analysts expect the company to post 10 cents per share profit, about $35 million. Revenue is expected to total around US$1.81 billion.
Apple will stream its second quarter conference call discussing the results at 5:00 pm ET here.
Inflation is going to rear it’s ugly head, in part due to rapidly rising energy prices. It’s not just the gas in your car’s fuel tank, manufacturing and transport of goods are greatly affected by energy costs. One of the great unsung factors of the 1990’s eceonomic growth was low and stable energy prices.
OT:
http://www.grokshill.net just came online. it’ goal is to model itself after groklaw.net. It wants to speak unbaised truth about the spin some analysts and reporters put into their articles(Enderle anyone?).
It is still early in it’s life, but can use all the help it can get in politely debunking these people. we want it to be credible, not another troll driven slashdot.
hey what’s with the slashdot remark? Slashdots system of rating and scoring the threads is a great way to filter through the trolling, and I also find the remarks there to be a higher standard than all other tech sites. I may not agree with them all, but the thought put into them is certainly above the norm…
a lot of slashdot people are intelligent, and their replies reflect that. I have also seen so many trolls and outright lies modded as +5 just because it is slightly humurous. I do go there for laughs though. As for outright tech, it is the Best site for the oddball collection of stuff that us techies seem to like.
slashdot is crowded and noisy.