Cisco Leads NY to Higher Opening

Elena
08 Aug, 2007
New York City

U.S. stock futures were indicating a higher opening of Wednesday trading session, following a positive close yesterday, as the Fed Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged as well as its bias toward inflation. Pre-market sentiment was lifted by improved revenue guidance at technology bellwether Cisco Systems which also reported a 25% jump in quarterly profit. Bear Stearns raised its rating on the stock to outperform from peer perform. Cisco rose 6% in the pre-open.

[R]09:00AM U.S. stock futures indicated a higher opening on Cisco outlook[/R]

U.S. stock futures were indicating a higher opening of Wednesday trading session, following a positive close yesterday, as the Fed Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged as well as its bias toward inflation.

Pre-market sentiment was lifted by improved revenue guidance at technology bellwether Cisco Systems ((CSCO)) which also reported a 25% jump in quarterly profit. Bear Stearns raised its rating on the stock to outperform from peer perform. Cisco rose 6% in the pre-open. Luxury builder Toll Brother ((TOL)) edged down after saying that home-building revenue in the last quarter dropped 21%.

Among other srtocks in focus, Sprint Nextel Corp. ((S)) reported a 95% drop in Q2 earnings as a result of higher costs and a lower contribution from operations. However, its underlying earnings of 25 cents a share beat analyst estimates.

The U.S. economic agenda is light Wednesday, with reports of June wholesale inventories and weekly energy inventories due out later in the session. S&P 500 futures rose 6.3 points at 1,488.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 11.75 points at 1,985.75. Dow industrial futures rose 41 points.


[R]8:00AM Sprint Nextel reported 95% earnings drop in Q2.[/R]

Sprint Nextel Corp. ((S)) said its Q2 earnings dropped 95% to $19 million, or 1 cent a share, compared with $370 million, or 12 cents, a year earlier. The steep profit decline was attributed to higher merger expenses, a lower contribution from operations, WiMAX-related costs and increased net interest expenses.

However, excluding discontinued operations, merger and severance costs, investment gains and losses on the early retirement of debt, the communications company posted earnings of 25 cents a share, compared with 32 cents last year. Sprint Nextel’s Q2 net operating revenue rose 1.5% to $10.16 billion from $10.01 billion a year ago.