A Brief Lease on Life for Tech Stocks
Triple-digit rallies in the Dow Jones Industrials and the Nasdaq Composite Index gave tech stocks a boost on Thursday and Friday, but market experts said the gains would most likely be temporary.
Attributing the rally to bargain hunting and relief over some less-terrible-than-expected earnings reports, experts estimated that last week's events will prove to be similar to rallies earlier this year.
"These are the same stocks that have sold off precipitously over the last few weeks, so this could just be a technical bounce, people buying on weakness," John Forelli, portfolio manger for the John Hancock Core Value Fund told the Associated Press. "I think it's too early to say we've seen the worst."
Thursday's comeback followed Motorola and Yahoo's release of second-quarter earnings reports that were better than analysts had predicted. The reason that the gains were said to be temporary is that Wall Street had low expectations to start with, and beating them wasn't much of a victory. In addition, neither company mentioned whether its business was expected to improve. Motorola, in fact, predicted disappointment next quarter.
Motorola rose 15.8 percent Thursday; Yahoo gained 7.2 percent. Additionally, Microsoft climbed 7.7 percent after announcing its quarterly revenues would be higher than expected. All three stocks lost ground Friday, but the Dow and the Nasdaq still managed to close the session higher.
Youbet.com Holds On to Nasdaq Listing
Youbet.com (UBET) common stock will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq National Market thanks to a favorable nod from Nasdaq's Listing Qualifications Panel.
On May 22 Youbet.com was notified by Nasdaq that it had failed to comply with minimum bid price requirements and that its securities were subject to delisting. Youbet.com's management presented its case for continued listing to the Listing Qualifications Panel on June 21. Any decision made by the panel can be reviewed by the Listing and Hearing Review Counsel within 45 days.
On July 7, the day of the announcement, Youbet.com closed at 1.08. On Friday Youbet.com ended the day at 1.04 with a volume of 36,700.
Drop in Casino Revenue Predicted by Jupiters
Jupiters (JUP.AX), which is the new boss of Queensland casino group, said the company's future growth will be in the areas of sports-, Internet- and technology-based betting.
Rob Hines, Jupiters' new managing director, said about 80 percent of the company's earnings are generated by its casinos in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. During the next 5 to 10 years he predicts a significant fall in those casino earnings.
Hines, who took over for Richard Barnes earlier this month, said the company plans to aggressively develop the electronic gaming side of its business.
CryptoLogic Trading on Pacific Exchange
The Pacific Exchange on July 11 began trading options of Toronto-based CryptoLogic Inc. (CRYP). The symbol for CryptoLogic on the Pacific Exchange is UFW. Position and exercise limits were set at 13,500 contracts.
The Way of the RivTrend
|
July 6 |
July 13 |
% Change |
| North America Index |
139.31 |
138.99 |
-0.23% |
| EuroAustralasia Index |
116.41 |
116.33 |
-0.07% |
| Global Index |
118.38 |
118.29 |
-0.08% |
World Gaming Names Two New Executives
Gaming technology provider World Gaming plc (WGMGY) announced the appointment of Rodney Davis as its chief financial officer. The company also recently named David Pasieka as its new chief operating officer. Davis was most recently the CFO of MGI Software Corporation, a leading global provider of visual media software. Before joining MGI, he was vice president of corporate development at Maxxcom Inc. Pasieka had been the acting COO for the past two months and will spearhead World Gaming's planned global expansion strategy. He had previously been a senior vice president of application hosting and IT at 724 Solutions Inc.
Penn National Gaming Conference Call on July 25
Penn National Gaming Inc. (PENN) will release its financial results July 25, the same day that it will host a conference call and Web cast at 10 a.m. EDT. The conference call number is 212-346-7496 or 415-247-8523. The same conference will be broadcast at http://webcast.themeetingson.com/webcast.jsp?reservation=19345750 (reservation #19345750). Both the call and the Web cast are open to the general public. A replay of the call can be accessed for 30 days at
www.themeetingson.com using the same reservation number.
Stanley Leisure Still a Good Bet?
Stanley Leisure lost about £20 million in revenue during the second half of last year because foot-and-mouth disease and dreary weather subtracted from the pleasure of travel to its casinos. That combined with a string of high-rolling winners and poor results from the Euro 2000 football championship and Royal Ascot led to the revenue decline, but the company's chief executive Bob Wiper is confident that a rebound is possible since betting tax is soon to be abolished.
Stanley opened an offshore gambling website in Malta to avoid the betting tax and will now be moving the operation to Liverpool. In the July 13 Daily Telegraph, analysts predicted that although profits fell, the stock's performance remains "reasonably recession proof" and a good investment.
GoCorp is No More
GoCorp has officially become Lasseters Corporation Limited. The announcement of the
name change was made by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on July 16 and was effective from July 9. Shareholders of GoCorp Limited voted in favor of merging with Lasseters Casino Pty Limited in April 2001.
FirstBingo.com Buys Shares of IGL Gaming
FirstBingo.com has agreed to buy all of the issued and outstanding shares and options of IGL Gaming Ltd. of St. Johns in Antigua. The acquisition of IGL Gaming will give FirstBingo immediate revenue of more than US $150 million per year and a net income of US $9 million. IGL Gaming owns and operates about 300 gambling Web sites. FirstBingo's CEO, Thomas Sheppard, said the move will allow FirstBingo to use IGL's extensive network and infrastructure to promote its TriviaBingo Pay-to-Play format.
GTECH Announces Plans to Increase Revenue
Lottery equipment and service provider GTECH (GTK) announced last week that it plans to increase its earnings through sales in developing nations as well as by expanding into financial services.
The West Greenwich, RI, company expects revenues to grow by 8 to 9 percent in the current fiscal year, which began Feb. 25. It expects share earnings to be in the $2.70 to $2.75 range. Industry analysts had predicted share earnings to be in between $2.71 and $3.05.
GTECH President and CEO Howard Cohen said the company along with partner Citibank will install 1,200 ATMs and provide other "remote" banking services in Brazil. In Chile, the company has agreements with more than 500 of its lottery retailers to provide electronic bill payment services at its outlets there. Last quarter, GTECH signed contracts to run national lotteries in Ukraine and Colombia. Its subsidiary has a deal with Poland for online lottery and instant-ticket services through Nov. 30, 2011.
GTECH's first quarter earnings were down by 5 percent from the year before; its fourth quarter revenues last year were 14 percent lower than those for the same quarter in 1999. On Friday GTECH closed at 35.47, 6 cents higher than the previous Friday and near its high for the year - 38.9.
Multimedia Games Releases Third Quarter Report
Multimedia Games Inc. (MGAM) has released its third quarter results. Net income from the quarter, which ended June 30, was $1.96 million--up $1.12 million from the same quarter last year when revenues were $832,000 (an increase of 135 percent).
Click here to view the summary results.