Ticker Talk
Corning Inc. (GLW), the No. 1 maker of glass used in fiber-optic networks, said profit will exceed forecasts for the second consecutive quarter on rising sales of optical fiber, cable and components.
Corning’s shares rocketed $21 to a record close of $233 on the New York Stock Exchange. They’ve almost quadrupled in the past year.
Nortel Networks Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc. and other equipment makers are buying more parts to meet demand for gear that beams information across fiber-optic networks.
Corning also is selling more optical fiber, which has the capacity to handle mounting Internet traffic on long-distance phone networks, and glass products used in flat-panel computer screens.
Corning said it will earn 78 to 80 cents a share for the second quarter, exceeding the 69-cent average estimate of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial. Net income was $121.8 million, or 49 cents, in the year-ago period. . . .
IBasis Inc. (IBAS) of Burlington, Mass., leaped $7.50, or 30%, to $32.88 after China Mobile Telecommunications Corp. said it will route voice and fax traffic from its 46 million customers over IBasis’ network. IBasis’ shares remain far down from their February peak of $94.25. . . .
The Nasdaq Stock Market plans to announce today that it is making a computer system available to electronic stock networks such as RediBook for trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, securities industry executives said.
The technology will give the private trading networks access to the Intermarket Trading System, which electronically links the U.S. stock markets. Known as electronic communication networks, or ECNs, the private networks were granted access to the ITS in a Securities and Exchange Commission rule approved in March. Nasdaq’s technology wasn’t then ready to carry out the rule.
The securities industry executives, who asked not to be named, said Nasdaq will announce that its Computer Assisted Execution System will funnel ECN orders through the ITS.
“This will help the ECNs take market share from the NYSE,” said Bernard Madoff, a New York broker-dealer who trades Big Board stocks off the NYSE floor. “It’s a step in the right direction, though not a blockbuster, because it won’t be easy for ECNs to capture order flow in listed stocks.”
