IN THE UNHAPPY ANNALS of big corporate mergers, a profit bonus six months into wedlock ranks as bliss.
Relieved investors bid up Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shares 10% in premarket trading after the computing and printing giant topped operating profit estimates and backed Wall Street's expectations.
The broader market trended higher as well as traders forgave a well-anticipated profit shortfall at General Electric (GE).
The conglomerate's 2002 earnings of $1.51 a share will be 14 cents light thanks to a charge of $1.4 billion to bolster loss reserves at the struggling Employers Reinsurance subsidiary. The company pegged next year's earnings at $1.55 to $1.70 a share, below Wall Street's recently reduced consensus. GE also plans to make a $4.5 billion capital contribution to its GE Capital finance unit and a $1.8 billion infusion into Employers Re. But the recently underachieving stock gained 2% in premarket trading.
Fellow Dow component Hewlett-Packard did the real heavy lifting after posting a $390 million net profit to reverse losses of $505 million run up a year ago by H-P and its merger partner Compaq.
Quarterly sales of $18.1 billion slipped $100 million in a year's time but posted a 9% sequential jump that surpassed expectations. And the operating profit of 24 cents a share was two cents higher than Wall Street's consensus, as the company cut 12,500 jobs instead of 10,000 it had hoped to shed since the Compaq buyout. "We're beginning to deliver on the promise of the merger," said Chief Executive Carly Fiorina.
The best thing Fiorina could say about the future was to back analysts' current first-quarter targets. She expects H-P's holiday shopping season to run a third below normal, much like the last back-to-school shopping season. And the company still has not seen signs of a rebound in corporate spending.
But the capital-spending slump has not deterred the recent market rally, and may not stand in the Nasdaq's way as it prepares to extend Wednesday's advance past a crucial technical resistance level. How bad can things really be if the troubled media hodge-podge Vivendi Universal (V) is feeling frisky enough to reject a $15 billion offer for its entertainment assets?
Not bad at all, decided traders who boosted Vivendi shares 14% in overseas trading. Former oil tycoon Marvin Davis appears unlikely to get his hands on Universal's movie, music and theme parks businesses. But Vivendi found a use for him all the same, as leaks of the offer bolstered the company's viability claims.
United Airlines parent UAL (UAL) was another highflier, its shares surging 33% in premarket trading after the troubled carrier reached a long-term deal on wage concessions with its machinists' union. The agreement bolsters United's pitch for $1.8 billion in federal loan guarantees it needs to stay out of bankruptcy. Speculators betting that United will get the help have helped the stock nearly double from its October low, even as analysts continue to cast doubt on United's survival odds.
Drug maker Merck (MRK) saw its stock rise 2% in premarket trading on an outburst of media enthusiasm for an experimental cervical cancer vaccine that won't be ready until 2006.
Weekly jobless claims obliged the optimists with a sizable drop, declining to 376,000 last week from the prior period's 401,000.
The good news hurt government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note inched up to 4.11% from Wednesday's 4.06%. The two-year note yielded 1.95%, up from 1.93% a day earlier
Relieved investors bid up Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shares 10% in premarket trading after the computing and printing giant topped operating profit estimates and backed Wall Street's expectations.
The broader market trended higher as well as traders forgave a well-anticipated profit shortfall at General Electric (GE).
The conglomerate's 2002 earnings of $1.51 a share will be 14 cents light thanks to a charge of $1.4 billion to bolster loss reserves at the struggling Employers Reinsurance subsidiary. The company pegged next year's earnings at $1.55 to $1.70 a share, below Wall Street's recently reduced consensus. GE also plans to make a $4.5 billion capital contribution to its GE Capital finance unit and a $1.8 billion infusion into Employers Re. But the recently underachieving stock gained 2% in premarket trading.
Fellow Dow component Hewlett-Packard did the real heavy lifting after posting a $390 million net profit to reverse losses of $505 million run up a year ago by H-P and its merger partner Compaq.
Quarterly sales of $18.1 billion slipped $100 million in a year's time but posted a 9% sequential jump that surpassed expectations. And the operating profit of 24 cents a share was two cents higher than Wall Street's consensus, as the company cut 12,500 jobs instead of 10,000 it had hoped to shed since the Compaq buyout. "We're beginning to deliver on the promise of the merger," said Chief Executive Carly Fiorina.
The best thing Fiorina could say about the future was to back analysts' current first-quarter targets. She expects H-P's holiday shopping season to run a third below normal, much like the last back-to-school shopping season. And the company still has not seen signs of a rebound in corporate spending.
But the capital-spending slump has not deterred the recent market rally, and may not stand in the Nasdaq's way as it prepares to extend Wednesday's advance past a crucial technical resistance level. How bad can things really be if the troubled media hodge-podge Vivendi Universal (V) is feeling frisky enough to reject a $15 billion offer for its entertainment assets?
Not bad at all, decided traders who boosted Vivendi shares 14% in overseas trading. Former oil tycoon Marvin Davis appears unlikely to get his hands on Universal's movie, music and theme parks businesses. But Vivendi found a use for him all the same, as leaks of the offer bolstered the company's viability claims.
United Airlines parent UAL (UAL) was another highflier, its shares surging 33% in premarket trading after the troubled carrier reached a long-term deal on wage concessions with its machinists' union. The agreement bolsters United's pitch for $1.8 billion in federal loan guarantees it needs to stay out of bankruptcy. Speculators betting that United will get the help have helped the stock nearly double from its October low, even as analysts continue to cast doubt on United's survival odds.
Drug maker Merck (MRK) saw its stock rise 2% in premarket trading on an outburst of media enthusiasm for an experimental cervical cancer vaccine that won't be ready until 2006.
Weekly jobless claims obliged the optimists with a sizable drop, declining to 376,000 last week from the prior period's 401,000.
The good news hurt government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note inched up to 4.11% from Wednesday's 4.06%. The two-year note yielded 1.95%, up from 1.93% a day earlier
