Stocks are lower as the dollar rises and Wall Street digests a week of mixed economic reports

Overseas markets declined. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB plans to start pulling back some of its stimulus programs as the economy begins to recover.

With little U.S. economic news to help sway the market Friday, the dollar is again pressuring stocks. A strengthening dollar drives down foreign demand for commodities, which are often traded in dollars. It also can depress U.S. exports which become more expensive as the dollar rises.

That can hurt the price of energy and materials stocks that are closely tied to commodities and companies with large operations overseas.

A disappointing earnings report from computer maker Dell Inc. is also weighing on the market. Dell said after the market closed Thursday that sales of its computers to big businesses remain sluggish. Its quarterly revenue and profit missed analysts’ expectations.

As

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Dell Inc. (DELL) reported third quarter 2010 EPS of 23 cents, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 27 cents. Revenue Revenue for the quarter was $10.75 billion, down 17.0% from $12.97 billion reported in the year-ago quarter and up 1.0% from $10.62 billion reported in the previous quarter. The company’s third quarter reported revenue was adversely affected by the timing of the Windows 7 launch and due to backlog buildup in the company’s SMB and consumer businesses. Revenue by Segment Large Enterprise posted revenue of $3.4 billion, an increase of 4.0% sequentially and decline of 23.0% year-over-year. In the last quarter, the company expended its networking partnership with Brocade and Juniper, and introduced products like PowerEdge 11g servers and expanded PowerVault storage systems. Public revenue for the quarter was $3.7 billion, down 3.0% on sequentially and 7.0% from the year-ago quarter. Shipments were ...

After the announcement of the much-hyped acquisition of 3Com Corp. (COMS), Hewlett Packard Co. (HPQ) has decided to beef up its education portfolio.   The three new easy-to-manage education solutions are tools for classroom teaching. The first is the HP MultiSeat, which enables a group of students to access a single host computer at the same time, thereby reducing the need to install additional host computers for uninterrupted data access. The second is the HP TeachNow, which helps teachers from non technical back grounds to address students using technology. Finally, HP SchoolCloud enables both students and teachers to access their applications and data from anywhere with the help of the Internet.   The rapid growth of the primary and higher education sector across the world is being driven by the increasing demand for skilled professionals, particularly in developing countries. This is a recession-proof industry and mostly remains ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Dell Inc. (DELL), Apple Inc. (AAPL), Nokia (NOK), Research In Motion (RIMM) and American Dairy Inc. (ADY).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Dell’s Smartphone Strategy

Dell Inc. (DELL), one of the world’s leading computer manufacturer, has decided to start manufacturing its smartphone device. The company has zeroed in on Brazil as the first manufacturing destination and chosen Claro as its carrier partner in the region. Dell will also

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Strong financial performance in the most recent quarter and continued growth in results despite a challenging economy have led Standard & Poor's (S&P) Rating Services to raise Red Hat Inc.’s  (RHT) corporate credit rating from BB to BB+.   Red Hat is a leader in open source software solutions and has been upgraded thrice in less than two years. The company believes that it is still in the early stages of growth and has tremendous growth opportunity beyond 2010.   We believe the company’s strong market position, focused execution, strong balance sheet, impressive cash flow, international expansion and proven value proposition will help grow its business in the near term and deliver strong revenue growth beyond fiscal 2010.   We remain positive on the company’s long-term growth given its robust performance, driven by the record bookings and billings, substantial recurring revenue stream and growth in deferred revenues.  ...

Dell Inc. (DELL), one of the world’s leading computer manufacturer, has decided to start manufacturing its smartphone device. The company has zeroed in on Brazil as the first manufacturing destination and chosen Claro as its carrier partner in the region. Dell will also be manufacturing the device in China and partner with China Mobile in that region. The phone will be using the Google Android operating system.   Dell’s entry into the smartphone segment looks like a logical progression, as the company is already manufacturing and rolling out reasonably priced netbooks in the market. However, Dell is a late entrant into the market, unlike its peer Apple Inc. (AAPL), which has already grabbed a large share through smartphones such as iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

As per the technology research firm Canalys, third quarter 2009 worldwide smartphone shipments grew 4% year on year, to 41.4 million units.  As

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After launching the world’s thinnest laptop, Dell Inc. (DELL) has now turned its focus on the printing segment of the company. The company has announced the launch of three new commercial workgroup printers, which the company claims will help businesses of all sizes increase productivity and reduce their total cost of printing.  The first of these printers is the Dell 5130cdn, which is claimed to be the world’s fastest letter size office color printer with the capacity to generate up to 47 single-sided and 37 double-sided prints per minute, priced at $1,549 in the US. The second is the Dell 7130cdn the company’s first LED-based color printer, which can print tabloid-size, high quality Pantone-approved color prints, for accurate color reproduction, available at a price of $2,799 in US. The third in the series is Dell 3330dn, a black and white performance printer with the ability to print ...

After launching the world’s thinnest laptop, Dell Inc. (DELL) has now turned its focus on the printing segment of the company. The company has announced the launch of three new commercial workgroup printers, which the company claims will help businesses of all sizes increase productivity and reduce their total cost of printing.  The first of these printers is the Dell 5130cdn, which is claimed to be the world’s fastest letter size office color printer with the capacity to generate up to 47 single-sided and 37 double-sided prints per minute, priced at $1,549 in the US. The second is the Dell 7130cdn the company’s first LED-based color printer, which can print tabloid-size, high quality Pantone-approved color prints, for accurate color reproduction, available at a price of $2,799 in US. The third in the series is Dell 3330dn, a black and white performance printer with the ability to print ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 6, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Intel Corporation (INTC), Dell Inc. (DELL), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s AnalystBlog:

Cisco Beats, Guides Up

Cisco Systems’ (CSCO) first quarter 2010 earnings beat the Zacks consensus by 13 cents. Revenue beat by 3.1%. Both revenue and EPS were significantly better than the guided range.

Revenue of $9.02 billion was up 5.7% sequentially and down 12.7% year over year.

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The $6.0 billion payment made by the world's largest chip maker Intel Corporation (INTC) over a five year period through January 2007 to its largest customer Dell Inc. (DELL) -- under programs initially titled 'MOAP' (Mother of all Programs) and then 'MCP’ (Meet Competition Payments) -- has backfired on Intel. This is the basis on which an antitrust lawsuit filed recently by the New York attorney general alleging a long business relationship between Intel and Dell. Andrew M. Cuomo filed a federal lawsuit against Intel, accusing the largest chip maker of paying computer makers illegal rebates for maintaining its monopoly and preventing another chip maker, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), from gaining business with PC makers. This is not the only allegation that has been filed against Intel. In a similar case earlier this year, the European ...