Stocks to watch for Tuesday, April 22, 2008:
 

• Boston Scientific (BSX) reported 1Q net income of $322 million, or 21 cents a share, more than twice the year ago results of $120 million, or 8 cents a share. Sales at the company fell 1.9% to $2.05 billion. The numbers were helped by cost cuts, including a plan to slash 2,300 jobs.
• CIT Group (CIT) said it sold $1.5 billion of common stock and convertible preferred stock. According to Reuters, this is 50% more than the company had planned to sell and further dilutes existing shareholders. $1 billion was sold as 91 million shares of common stock at $11 each. $500 million was in preferred stock carrying an 8.75% dividend, convertible into CIT stock at $12.65 apiece.
• DuPont (DD) posted 1Q net income of $1.19 billion, or $1.31 a share, up from $945 million, or $1.01 a share a year ago. The company said results were helped by growing food demand in developing countries and increased use of biofuels which have led to soaring grain prices and the increased use of fertilizer and high-yielding biotech seeds, reported Reuters.
• Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) reported 1q net income of $292 million, or 55 cents a share, down 19% from $359 million, or 65 cents a share a year ago. Revenue climbed 26% to $1.7 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, the bank boosted its provision for loan and lease losses more than sixfold to $544 million.
• Texas Instruments (TXN) reported 1Q profit of $662 million, or 49 cents a share, a 28% gain from a year ago and in line with expectations. Revenue came in at $3.27 billion. However, shares dipped as the company commented on a weak market for high-end mobile phone chips.
• United Health (UNH) reported 1Q net income of $994 million, or 78 cents a share, a 7.2% increase from $927 million, or 66 cents a share a year ago. Revenue was up 6.6% to $20.3 billion from $19.05 billion. Despite the numbers, the company cut its forecast for full-year earnings by 40 cents to a range of $3.55 to $3.60 a share, including an expected 10-cent negative impact of "unusually high influenza costs." It also cut its revenue outlook to between $81 billion and $82 billion from $83 billion, said the WSJ.

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• Asian trading closed mixed with the Hang Seng +0.88%, Nikkei -1.09%, Sensex +0.27%, Taiwan -0.51% and Shanghai +0.99%.
• Glancing towards Europe, we find the CAC +0.22%, DAX +0.11%, FTSE -0.03%, ATX -0.07%, Swiss Mkt. -0.37% and Stockholm +0.10%.
• Commodities are in the green as crude oil trades up +0.08 to 117.56 and gold reaches higher +2.5 to 914.7 this morning.