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Super Tuesday lives up to its name on Wall Street

By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 commentator

Dallas, TX – There's a Super Tuesday for everything, and why should Wall Street be left out? I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.

Presidential primaries have a Super Tuesday. Airlines have a Super Tuesday for online specials. The NCAA Basketball Tournament has one, as does the music industry. The Marine Corps Exchange even has one, but you have to be a Marine to take advantage of the great deals. So today it's Super Tuesday on Wall Street when a slew of companies divulge just how well they fared in the first quarter. It's living up to its name.

Texas Instruments - the ninth largest company in the Metroplex - the semi-conductor manufacturer who reported after the bell yesterday that profits fell from the same period last year, was the catalyst of today's early rally. "Why, if profits fell, would they rally?" you ask. Because it was not as bad as expected, and T.I. predicts it will return to profitability in the second quarter.

Novellus Systems, a chip processing gear maker, whatever that is, helped the needy technology sector by also reporting less of a loss than expected. But beware, you high-rolling technology traders. Intel, number one competitor of T.I., comes out after the bell today. Expectations are for the company to report earnings of fifteen cents a share, down just a penny from last year. I know, the tension is too great.

The ailing telecom industry got a lift from Sprint PCS who had a narrower than expected loss. And to everyone's amazement, number one carmaker General Motors not only topped first quarter profit estimates, but also raised their guidance for the second quarter. Coca-Cola had to report this huge loss primarily due to changes made in their accounting practice. I'm surprised we haven't seen more of that. The 'Street' understood and Coke is also up.

By the way, if you've been craving vanilla flavoring in your Coca-Cola, you might be telepathic. Next month Coke will launch its new Vanilla Coke. Now I have a craving for a chocolate phosphate. You don't know what you're missing! For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.

 

Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 P.M.