STOCKS TO WATCH: Iomega, Apple, Micron Technology, AOL and Sprint
Stocks to watch Tuesday:
The company's third quarter net loss of 7 cents per share beat First Call's consensus forecast of an 18-cents-per-share deficit. Micron also saw higher DRAM prices in August and September, which portends well for its margins, at least in the near future.
However, positive news was also expected -- the stock ran up almost 15 percent in the two session preceding the third quarter report.
A $77 billion offer from MCI Worldcom was enough to win the bidding for Sprint, according to Reuters sources. The bid was apparently improved from an earlier $65 billion proposal after BellSouth jumped into the fray.
The company is widely expected to announce iMacs at a press conference scheduled today. Interim CEO Steve Jobs is likely to have other surprises as well, but most analysts are fairly certain that new iMacs will be unveiled, especially after many reports have surfaced on the Internet.
"That is the logical supposition," said Lou Mazzucchelli, an analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. "The rumor is the styling will be mostly similar, but it will still look like an iMac."
Rhona Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., declined to comment on the company's plans.
The maker of Zip drives and other removable storage products expects to report a third quarter loss of $5 million, not counting one-time charges related to restructuring and an increase in deferred tax assets.
Assuming Iomega's total shares outstanding hasn't changed too much from the second quarter, that $5 million figure translates into a loss of roughly 2 cents per share. First Call's consensus prediction called for a loss of a penny per share.
Get ready for a new blitz of CD-ROMs.
The world's largest ISP is set to unveil Tuesday its latest software upgrade, with new features for Web searching, posting photos online, home-page personalization and online events calendars.
More than 750,000 subscribers have already installed preview versions of AOL 5.0. The general release is set for press conference today.>