Online fashion retailer Asos jumped 5.5% after one of the City's more negative analysts on the stock changed his mind.
"In the current economic outlook, a push for a higher price through a deeper-than-expected cut can easily work against the cartel's objective as it has the potential to turn sentiment on the economy even more negative," said Harry Tchilinguirian, BNP Paribas analyst.
Other reports this week — like the January survey of consumer confidence in Belgium and the ZEW survey on German investor sentiment — have confounded the more negative expectations of some analysts.
Faced with declines in demand in the personal computer market, Hewlett-Packard will likely weather the storm with cost-cutting, while Dell will likely suffer more negative impact, according to Banc of America Securities analyst Keith Bachman.
"There may be an elevation of Nascar's profile now, but long term, it will have a more negative impact," said Marc Falcone, a motorsports analyst at Bear Stearns.
Mr. Spitzer said the messages showed that Merrill analysts had much more negative opinions about companies' prospects than they were sharing with Merrill customers.
As the end of the second quarter approaches, analysts said they were expecting more negative earnings projections.
"Put it this way: there are more negative than positive surprises out there," said Richard Baum, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston.
Noting that Wyeth had already set aside $16 billion "and counting" to cover the cost of litigation arising from the drug, Hemant K. Shah, an analyst in Warren, N.J., said it was more "negative news in the saga of diet drugs".
