How The Credit Card Industry Is Changing
Stocks
are mixed as investors ponder yesterday’s disappointing Fed statements. Oil
giant ExxonMobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported higher earnings from rising energy
prices. Income rose to $6.65 billion on revenue of $65.95, with $2.23 billion of
the profit due to a favorable tax ruling. The company’s oil and gas production
fell to 4.41 million barrels per day despite heavy demand. Verizon
(
VZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
posted a fourth-quarter loss of $1.46 billion on revenues of $17.28 billion due
to a one-time charge of $3.1 billion, including 21,000 job cuts.
MBNA
(
KRB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will begin issuing American Express
(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) credit
cards as soon as legal issues are resolved between American Express, Visa, and
Mastercard. This is the first time a major issuer of Visa or MasterCard credit
cards will market the cards in the United States. AXP was upgraded by Piper
Jaffray. Gold prices fell $15
(
GCJ4 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) due to the Fed’s comments on
when to raise interest rates.
After the bell, Advent
(
ADVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Gateway
(
GTW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Nortel
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are expected to report
earnings of $+0.02, $-0.15, $+0.02 per share, respectively.
| Dow | +8.41 | 10476.06 |
| S&P 500 |
-1.37 | 1127.20 |
| Nasdaq | -22.74 |
2055.08 |
The day’s leading sectors are
Biotechs
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.10%, Chemicals
(
CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.38%,
Healthcare
(
HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.34%, and
Utilities
(
UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.19%.
Weak today are Networking
(
NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.50%,and Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.07%.
Economic news releases included
Initial Claims falling to 342K, and a lower Helped Wanted index of 38.
10-year Notes are +10
at 112 295
The dollar
is +0.70 at 87.94
Gold is -15.90 at 399.90
Crude Oil is -0.86 at
31.95
Volume is 850,000,000 on
the NYSE, and 1,299,000,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1034 | Up Vol 251 |
| Declining | 2096 | Down Vol 590 |
| Ratio | 2.02 | 2.35 |
| Nasdaq | ||
| Advancing | 823 | Up Vol 230 |
| Declining | 2217 | Down Vol 1064 |
| Ratio | 2.69 | 4.63 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Disney [DIS|DIS],
+2.89% at 24.38, McDonalds [MCD|MCD],
+1.86% at 25.31, Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.78% at 42.27, and American Express
[AXP|AXP], +1.41% at
50.58.
Stocks in the news:
Razor-maker Gillette
(
G |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported net
income of $368, up 6% from the previous quarter. Sales rose 4% to $2.62
billion. Both numbers were in line with analysts’ consensus.
Kellogg’s
(
K |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) earnings fell to $188
million due to higher costs, with revenue rising to $2.14 billion. The company
said sales of its cereal products were strong, but sales of Keebler cookie
products were disappointing.
AstraZeneca
(
AZN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 2% after
reporting weaker earnings with EPS about 15 cents lower than expected. Net
income came in at $635 million with sales falling 2% to $4.9 billion.
JetBlue Airways
(
JBLU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
earnings of $19.5 million on sales of $262.9 million. Load factor rose 1.3
points to 83.1% on a 5% capacity increase. The airline’s shares are down 45%
from an October high of $46.
LSI Logic
(
LSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of
$7.6 million, including various one-time acquisition and restructuring charges.
After charges, earnings were $24.6 on $462.8 million revenue. The company’s
storage products have been strong but its semiconductor division has experienced
weakness.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com