Quote of the Day

"Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves-- to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today, to do our work with more force than ever before." -- Stewart B. Johnson

Morning News of Note:

• Credit Cards: The Days of Credit-Card-Only Issuers May Be Numbered The nation's independent credit-card companies may not be independent much longer. A slowdown in the growth rate of the credit-card business is putting new pressure on card issuers that focus mostly on the business of peddling plastic. As a result, investors and analysts are betting that a wave of consolidation may spell the end of a business model that has been key in the evolution of the credit-card industry. Known in the industry as "mono-line" companies, they include MBNA Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Providian Financial Corp., and Metris Cos. Unlike other credit-card operations that are tucked into banking behemoths such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., the mono-line issuers don't have significant banking operations. (Full Story) WSJ
• TWX: AOL's Plan to Move Content To Free Site Is a Risky Reversal America online became the Internet's biggest business by charging people a monthly subscription fee for its service. Now, faced with mounting customer defections, it is gambling it can do better by giving away many of its features. Hoping for a bigger piece of the fast-growing online advertising pie, AOL later this month will unveil a revamped AOL.com Web site, offering free access to many of the features once available only to AOL's paying subscribers -- such as news, Internet radio, videos of music concerts and articles from magazines published by AOL's sister publications at Time Inc. (Full Story) WSJ
• TIVO MSFT: TiVo (TIVO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) announced a nationwide upgrade to the TiVoToGo service, enabling people for the first time to move TiVo content stored on a Microsoft Windows XP-based PC onto Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers powered by Intel Mobile Media Technology as well as newer Windows Mobile-based Smartphones and Pocket PCs. Select American Airlines (AMR) customers will be among the first to try out the latest summer travel technology with free Portable Media Centers -- which they'll be able to keep -- loaded with TiVo content via a chartered flight on June 8, 2005, hosted by American Airlines, TiVo, Microsoft and Intel.
• TXN: Texas Instruments narrows Q2 range; EPS now above consensus -Update- Co now sees Q2 EPS of $0.27-$0.30, vs prior guidance of $0.25-$0.29 (consensus $0.27); sees revs $3.12-3.24 bln, vs prior guidance of $3.00-$3.24 bln (consensus $3.14 bln). Co says its updated estimates reflect growing demand across a broad range of its Semiconductor products, as well as seasonal growth in its educational calculators.
• YHOO FON: Yahoo! Inc-YHOO launches enhanced mobile email service with Sprint-FON The service will give users the ability to manage their email on a mobile device & will cost $2.99 a month.

Market Commentary: The market opened up slightly this morning, after yesterday's nasty reversal. The market was exceptionally strong intraday yesterday, but gave back all of its gains and closed in the red for the day. Volume ran a little higher than the previous day, qualifying as a distribution day. This is probably a result of the fact that the market is a little extended, and in need of some consolidation.