Stock Market Update - Tue Oct 23 12:00:01 EDT 2007

[BRIEFING.COM] Strong earnings reports, led by blue chip companies, helped the market start the day with decent sized gains.  The indices are off their intraday highs, though, following some profit taking that was spurred by reports that Wal-Mart (WMT 43.95, -1.30) is cutting its capital expenditures to counter sluggish U.S. growth.

Apple's (AAPL 185.59, 11.23) stock has hit an all-time high after the company reported strong fiscal fourth quarter earnings of $1.01 per share, which was $0.16 better than the consensus estimate.  Fourth quarter profit rose by 67%.  The company also raised its first quarter earnings guidance to $1.42 per share versus the consensus estimate of $1.40.

A number of brokerages raised their price target on Apple's stock, including UBS which raised its target to $220 from $182. 

Several other companies topped their earnings expectations, including Dow components American Express (AXP 57.96, +1.09) and DuPont (DD 46.62, +0.5).  Meanwhile, AT&T (T 41.54, +0.38) and Johnson Controls (JCI 40.01, -0.06) reported earnings that were in line with expectations.

Texas Instruments (TXN 31.12, -3.13) is a laggard despite beating its earnings estimates due to fourth quarter revenue warnings. The warnings caused a number of brokerages to downgrade the company.

Wal-Mart has been a large drag on the market after reports that the company expects lower capital expenditures. Reuters reports that the company expects $14.7-15.4 billion in capital expenditures for its current fiscal year, and forecasts $13.5-15.2 billion for FY09-FY10.

Five of the ten economic sectors are in negative territory. The consumer discretionary (-0.2%), financial (-0.1%) and energy (-0.1%) sectors are the main drags. Tech (+0.5%) and telecom (+0.6%) are providing leadership.

In commodities, oil has dipped 0.8% to $85.30. Gold is flat at $759.70

NYSE Adv/Dec 1565/1527...Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1333/1459