Earnings Lift Market: Here Are The Highlights
Stocks are higher on a host of good earnings
reports. In addition, producer
price data eased worries about faster interest rate hikes.
Coca-Cola
(
KO |
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PowerRating) reported better than expected earnings–excluding
items–and announced a $2 billion buyback. Quarterly net income fell 11%;
revenue rose 4%. The stock is trading up pre-open.
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
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PowerRating) reported 0.97, beating by 0.05.
Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
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PowerRating) posted a down quarter but beat expectations;
the company announced a $4 billion stock buyback and increased the dividend 25%.
Texas Instruments
(
TXN |
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PowerRating) beat by a penny and guided in-line. Q1
profits rose 12%.
General Motors
(
GM |
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PowerRating) reported <1.48>, beating by a penny. GM bonds
are trading 800 basis points over treasuries. The company offered no guidance.
The yield on GM common stock is 7.6% but there is talk that dividend may be cut.
Revenue per vehicle dropped by almost $700.
Pfizer
(
PFE |
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PowerRating) was in-line, ex-items.Â
PPI for March was 0.7%, in-line; ex food and energy, +0.1, slightly lower.
Housing starts fell 17.6% in March. Building permits fell 4%.
Intel reports today after the bell; analysts are estimating 0.31 and
$8.89 billion in revenues.
Earnings this week (estimates in parentheses):
Wednesday
EBAY (0.18), Caterpillar (1.34), Ford (0.39), MOTÂ
(0.19), JPM (0.69), QCOM (0.27), SBC (0.33), YUM
(0.52)
Thursday
GOOG (0.92), T (0.59)Â MCD (0.43)
Friday
EK (0.33), HAL (0.44), IP (0.33), MYG (0.20)
Two-thirds of firms that have provided Q2 guidance have guided lower.
Thompson Financial says that Q1 earnings growth could be 11-12%.
Strong sectors are:Â Gold
(
$XAU.X |
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PowerRating) +2.15%Â Â
 Chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
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PowerRating) +1.95%Â Â Natural Gas
(
$XNG.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.96%
Weak sectors are:Â Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) -1.75%Â Â
Pharmaceuticals
(
$DRG.X |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) -0.32%Â Â Retail
(
$RLX.X$ |
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Chart |
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PowerRating)
-0.70%Â
Dow | +57.7 | 10,128.96 |
Nasdaq | +13.91 | 1926.83 |
S&P 500 | +6.38 | 1152.36 |
The dollar is -0.23 at
83.77
Crude Oil is +1.53 at 53
Gold is +5.60 at 432.10
ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 961 million on the NYSE and
836 million on the Nasdaq
Market breadth is positive.
NYSE | Issues | |
Advancing | 2273 | Up Vol 643 |
Declining | 870 | Down Vol 237 |
2.61 | 2.71 | |
Nasdaq |
||
Advancing | 1868 | Up Vol 576 |
Declining | 960 | Down Vol 190 |
1.94 | 3.03 |
Stocks in the News
Novellus
(
NVLS |
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PowerRating) reported in-line at 0.22; the company beat on
revenues but margins were lower than expected.
EMC Corp.
(
EMC |
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PowerRating) was in-line at 0.11.
Radio Shack
(
RSH |
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PowerRating) beat estimates, but warned.
American Standard
(
ASD |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.11.
Viacom
(
VIA |
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PowerRating) beat by 0.05 and revenues were slightly higher than
expected.
Sonus Networks
(
SONS |
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PowerRating) lowered its forecast for Q1; the stock
traded lower after the close.
Lucent
(
LU |
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PowerRating) reported 0.06, in-line; revenues were $2.34 billion.
The company has $4.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet.
Target
(
TGT |
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PowerRating) said that April comps will be at the low end of the
2-4% range.
Taser
(
TASR |
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PowerRating) missed by 0.02 and did not provide any guidance.
Brice Wightman