Posted Jul 9th 2008 8:13AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Deals, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Merrill Lynch (MER), EMC Corp (EMC), Raytheon Company (RTN)
Before the bell: Futures lower as oil rises, despite Alcoa earningsNearly two years after Google Inc. (NASDAQ:
GOOG) bought YouTube for over $1.6 billion, it seems that it is not the cash cow Google had hoped it could become. Getting ad revenue from YouTube,
The Wall Street Journal says, is
not an easy task. Despite the site's popularity with surfers, it isn't popular with big corporate advertisers. World-wide revenue from YouTube ads is likely to total about $200 million for the full year, less than Google's expectation. Google has been trying to show it is not a one-trick pony, YouTube was critical in that.
According to
The New York Post, "A blind trust run by Mayor Bloomberg is willing to pay between $4.5 billion and $5 billion to buy Merrill Lynch (NYSE:
MER)'s 20 percent stake in Bloomberg LP."
If you missed it Tuesday, VMware (NYSE:
VMW) sank over 24%, taking EMC Corp. (NYSE:
EMC) shares down 11% with it. The drop is attributed to two main issues, "VMware's warning that revenue for the current year will fall short of expectations," and doubt "EMC would spin out the remainder of VMware's shares." But this morning, after the abrupt
replacement of co-founder and CEO Diane Greene by former Microsoft Corp. official Paul Maritz, Wall Street still doesn't seem to be fully satisfied.
Continue reading Before the bell: GOOG, MER, VMW, RTN, AAPL
Posted Jul 9th 2008 7:32AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Market matters, Alcoa Inc (AA), Sears Holdings (SHLD), Economic data, Oil, Federal Reserve
U.S. stock futures were lower early Wednesday morning as oil prices rebounded following Iran testing a long-range missile. Oil has dropped over $9 the past two days, allowing the market Tuesday to stage a rally on financials. Today, ahead of the crude inventory report, it seem oil will renew its center stage focus, damping mood despite somewhat encouraging results from aluminum giant Alcoa Tuesday after the close.
On Tuesday, after having a shaky start, U.S. stocks closed with significant gains after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed will try to further help brokerages with emergency funds to tap. This helped financials rally from recent doldrums. Of course, having oil prices easing by the biggest two-day drop in almost four months helped push stocks higher as well. The Dow industrials ended 152 points higher, or 1.36%, the Nasdaq Composite rose 51 points, or 2.28%, and the S&P 500 added 21 points, or 1.71%.
But oil prices this morning are again moving higher after
Iran test-fired nine missiles, renewing fears of a conflict that could cut global oil supplies. Also today, traders are waiting for the weekly report on fuel inventories from the U.S. Department of Energy due at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures lower as oil rises, despite Alcoa earnings
Posted Jul 8th 2008 6:23PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Earnings reports, Alcoa Inc (AA)
If you look at financial sites' headlines, they mostly say (nearly scream through the titles) that
Alcoa beat the Street.
And it's true. Analysts estimated some set of earnings numbers for the aluminum giant, and
Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:
AA), reporting after the close,
beat those numbers. Specifically, Alcoa
reported a second-quarter profit of $546 million, or 66 cents a share, on revenue of $7.6 billion, beating what analysts polled by FactSet Research were looking for, a profit of 65 cents a share on sales of $7.37 billion.
But really, those earnings were down from $715 million, or 81 cents a share, a year earlier, and even if the recent quarter's charge of $39 million, or 5 cents a share, is taken into account (bringing earnings per share to 71 cents), profit is still lower. However -- and perhaps that's the silver lining Wall Street is looking at -- sales rose 11% when the divested business revenue is excluded from last year's revenue.
Continue reading Alcoa shares higher after not-as-bad-as-expected earnings
Posted Jul 8th 2008 3:42PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Deals, Law, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD)
It seems that not a day goes by without some news regarding one of the largest deals Wall Street is following intently these days, InBev's $46 billion hostile takeover bid for
Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc. (NYSE:
BUD).
Not long ago, Reuters
reported that Anheuser-Busch filed a suit Monday against InBev NV, calling the brewer's takeover attempt an "illegal plan and scheme" to acquire Anheuser "at a bargain price."
It isn't surprising the Budweiser maker has filed a suit. Only last week, when A-B
officially rejected InBev's $46 billion offer, the latter filed a suit of its own as well as launched a proxy battle, filing a
consent solicitation with regulators seeking to replace Anheuser's board. Anheuser's suit seeks an injunction to stop InBev's attempts to replace its board. Anheuser says it wants first to make sure certain alleged false and misleading statements are fixed.
From the lawsuit (pdf file) it seems that some of the misleading statements Anheuser is complaining about have to do with InBev's financing possibilities and its plans for the company once it is taken over. I don't normally read litigation documents, but the language here seems quite strong with allegations even of rumor mongering. Judge for yourself:
Continue reading Anheuser-Busch (BUD) sues InBev, what's next?
Posted Jul 8th 2008 8:19AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Apple Inc (AAPL), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Employees, Novartis AG ADS (NVS), Office Depot (ODP)
Before the bell: Futures lower ahead of Bernanke speech, Alcoa; Indymac plungesIndustrial conglomerate Siemens AG (NYSE:
SI) said Tuesday it would
cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2% of its global work force of 400,000 people. Most of the cuts would be administrative jobs. Siemens is attempting to cut nearly $2 billion in costs by 2010 as a slowing economy is affecting its business.
Office Depot (NYSE:
ODP) shares are sinking 13.5% in premarket trading after the office-supplies retailer said that "pressure from weakening business conditions" has hurt second-quarter sales, and forecast a
nearly 10% drop in second-quarter North American same-store retail sales.
General Motors (NYSE:
GM) and Ford (NYSE:
F) shares are declining 1.5% and 2.2% respectively in premarket trading despite reporting
strong first-half sales in China, where the auto market is booming. GM said sales of its brands rose 12.7%, and Ford said its sales rose 21%.
Continue reading Before the bell: SI, ODP, GM, F, NVS, AAPL
Posted Jul 8th 2008 7:41AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Market matters, Alcoa Inc (AA), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Economic data, IndyMac Bancorp (IMB), Federal Reserve
U.S. stock futures were lower early Tuesday morning, the day when one of the worst earnings season in decades is about to kick off. Financials, credit market and economy jitters only compound the bearish sentiment out there.
On Monday, U.S. stocks ended lower despite starting the day with nice, solid gains as the price of oil dropped some $5 a barrel. But economic worries following a speech from a Federal Reserve official seeing more troubles to come, as well as worries about financial stocks and the credit market as
capital concerns at Fannie Mae (NYSE:
FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:
FRE) grew, brought in the bears. The Dow industrials ended dropping 56 points, or 0.5%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 2 points, or 0.09%, and the S&P 500 fell 10 points, or 0.84%. The S&P 500 is still slightly above bear market territory.
Today, much will depend on two speeches from Federal Reserve officials. First, at 8:30 a.m., Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak at a mortgage lending forum hosted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is also slated to appear at the forum.
Also, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker is scheduled to speak about the U.S. economic outlook in Washington.
The speeches could sway market in different directions, but also some economic data released today could have an impact, especially May pending home sales and wholesale inventories scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. EDT.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures lower ahead of Bernanke speech, Alcoa; Indymac plunges
Posted Jul 7th 2008 1:42PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Major movement, Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), American Express (AXP), Oil, S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ
When last week one analyst after another suggested a
bankruptcy at one of the automakers is inevitable, many readers commented that bankruptcies at financials were very likely as well. One holiday weekend later and it seems Wall Street is more inclined to agree with this analysis than ever.
The day started off nicely with stocks staging a quiet rally as
crude prices declined more than $5 a barrel and the dollar strengthened. But by midday, the bears, it seems, have had enough of entertaining the bulls and returned in drove to sell more of their financials holdings, taking the rest of the stock markets with them. By 1:15 p.m., the Dow was off a 100 points, or 0.9%, the S&P 500 was down 1.28% and the Nasdaq composite declined 0.85%.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:
C) shares were down over 5%,
American Express (NYSE:
AXP) shares down over 4.2% and
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:
JPM) shares were off 4.8%.
Financial regulators also announced not too long before the selloff began an
information-sharing agreement between the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission "aimed at better detecting potential risks to the U.S. financial system." Perhaps the agreement reminded investors of the fragile condition financials are still in and eroded confidence in their ability to bounce back without any more nasty surprises. Recent mentions of
liquidity concerns at banks and brokerages, and their need to raise more capital and
sell assets, has been weighing markets and financials down.
Continue reading Market rally ends, stocks sell-off on financials, economy and earnings concerns
Posted Jul 7th 2008 8:13AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Apple Inc (AAPL), Walt Disney (DIS), Merrill Lynch (MER), Merck and Co (MRK), News Corp'B' (NWS)
Before the bell: Futures mixed as oil drops, ahead of earnings season kickoffAccording to the
New York Post Friday, Merrill Lynch (NYSE:
MER) is
in talks to sell its 20% stake in Bloomberg L.P. back to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The post cited anonymous sources. But Merrill will likely not end its cash raising efforts there and could also try to sell its 49% stake in investment manager BlackRock (NYSE: BLK). Selling different assets, could bring some $50 billion to cash-strapped Merrill.
APP Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
APPX) shares are up nearly 32% to $23.50 in premarket trading after Germany's health-care giant Fresenius said it's going to
buy it for up to $4.6 billion, or $29 a share, depending if certain financial targets are met. This marks Fresenius attempt to enter the U.S. market.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:
AAPL) is set to
launch its next generation iPhone Friday. The 3G, or third-generation, phone will be cheaper and faster than its predecessor and could expand Apple's reach to many more countries that rely on that technology. Apple has set a target to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, and already sold 1.79 million in the first quarter. Analysts have so far kept their target on Apple, such as Lehman reiterating its Overweight on the stock.
Continue reading Before the bell: MER, APPX, AAPL, MRK, DIS, NWS
Posted Jul 7th 2008 7:42AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, General Electric (GE), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Alcoa Inc (AA), Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD), Oil
U.S. stock futures were mixed early Monday morning after the long holiday weekend to start a week that is also set to kick off second quarter corporate earnings. While oil weakness and the dollar strength helped the mood on the Street, there is much concern over earnings.
U.S. stocks ended mixed on a short trading day Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 73 points, or 0.65%, but it wasn't enough to pull it out of bear-market territory it fell into during last week. The S&P 500 also climbed 1 point, or 0.11%, but the Nasdaq composite fell 6 points, or 0.27%, on Thursday.
No economic data is scheduled for release Monday, so investor will likely continue to focus on energy prices while anticipating the beginning of earnings season.
Oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel Monday to just over $143 a barrel as the dollar strengthened. Still, the dollar is expected to resume its decline and as Mideast tensions continue, traders don't expect oil to decline much further.
Meanwhile, investors in general
don't anticipate corporate America to deliver good earnings. The season will officially kick off Tuesday, when Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) reports after the close. General Electric (NYSE: GE), reports Friday. The question seems to be more how bad results will be, and if they would signal a bottom from which stocks could recover.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures mixed as oil drops, ahead of earnings season kickoff
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 3:19PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Industry, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)
I was actually in Detroit on Monday. I'm not going to write about the urban decay and the deterioration of the city. Many have researched and documented this far better than I ever could. But even in my short three-hour visit, the evidence was all too clear. Personally, I think Detroit has more character than many other richer and far more maintained and manicured cities. Even abandoned and in shambles, many of the buildings are architectural gems. Perhaps because one can still see the glorious past through the ruins, that it is so affecting. Or, as the website names them, they are
The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit.
It is for this reason that the recent talk of
bankruptcy for one of the Big Three has been so disturbing.
This week has been very busy for automakers, starting with June car and truck sales reported on Tuesday.
General Motors Corporation (NYSE:
GM) reported an 18.2% drop in sales, which was actually better than expected, and
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:
F) a drop of 27.9%. Meanwhile, Japan's
Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:
TM) posted a 21.4% sales decline. GM shares actually got a boost from the sales figures, but that didn't last long.
Continue reading Bankruptcy for one of the Big Three?
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 8:30AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Viacom (VIA), AMR Corp (AMR)
Before the bell: Futures mixed ahead of ECB, Jobs data; oil nears $146; NVDA plungesAMR Corp. (NYSE:
AMR), the parent of American Airlines, expects to record a non-cash charge of nearly $1.3 billion in the second quarter, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also indicated it may
cut nearly 7,000 jobs, or 8% of its workforce.
A federal judge in New York ruled Tuesday that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:
GOOG)
doesn't have to turn over source code for the search function in its YouTube video service as part of an ongoing $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Viacom Inc. (NYSE:
VIA), but it does have to turn over records of every video watched by YouTube users, including their login names and IP addresses, be turned over to the entertainment giant. If this doesn't seem like a consumer privacy violation, I'm not sure what is.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:
AAPL) is also encountering some law suits. This time CEO "Steve Jobs and other managers were accused in an investor lawsuit against the company of backdating stock-option awards to maximize their personal profit." According to
Bloomberg, Shareholder Martin Vogel and co-plaintiff Kenneth Mahoney said in the new complaint that Apple executives hid the cost of the backdated options from shareholders, leading the company to file false financial statements.
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 7:40AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Economic data, Oil
Stock futures were mixed early Thursday morning, the last and shortened day of trading this week -- markets will close at 1 p.m. EDT. Oil, again, has reached new highs as investors awaited the ECB decision on interest rate. Wall Street is also anxious about the upcoming jobs report, especially after Wednesday the ADP employment figures were worse than expected. Today's session will likely be choppy.
Despite starting the day on a positive note Wednesday, U.S. stocks ended sharply lower after the ADP employment figures damped mood on the Street. Also, crude oil prices rose sharply and an analyst warned that General Motors (NYSE:
GM) may have to consider bankruptcy at some point; GM stock closed below $10 a share. The Dow industrials tumbled 166 points, or 1.46%, entering bear territory -- down over 20%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 53 points, or 2.32%, and the S&P 500, fell 23 points, or 1.82% - the only major index still not in bear territory.
Soon, at 7:45 a.m. EDT, the European Central Bank will announce its decision on interest rates. The ECB is
widely expected to increase rates, which in turn could further weaken the dollar, driving oil prices higher.
Then, at 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department will release the
June payroll figures. Economists expect the unemployment rate to fall to 5.4% from 5.5% last month, but job losses are expected to rise to 60,000 positions, up from 49,000 in May, according to
Briefing.com.
At 10:00 a.m., the June ISM services index will be released, and another decline is expected.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures mixed ahead of ECB, Jobs data; oil nears $146; NVDA plunges
Posted Jul 2nd 2008 8:20AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Major movement, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Law, Apple Inc (AAPL), General Motors (GM), AT and T (T), Novartis AG ADS (NVS), Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA)
Before the bell: Futures higher on SBUX, YHOO, ahead of inventory reportDeutsche Bank (NYSE:
DB) shares are trading 4.2% higher in premarket action after the bank, seeking to calm investors, said it
expects a profit in its second quarter.
While AT&T Inc. (NYSE:
T)
unveiled its pricing strategy for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:
AAPL)'s 3G iPhone to go on sale July 11 with a $199 and $299 (with contract) price points as expected,
Canadians are outraged over Rogers Communications Inc. (NYSE:
RCI)'s 3G iPhone rates and have created an online petition that collected over 19,000 signatures already.
AstraZeneca (NYSE:
AZN) rose in Europe and is rising over 2.7% in premarket trading after
winning a court case against Teva Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:
TEVA) and the Sandoz unit of Novartis (NYSE:
NVS) over patents on its Seroquel schizophrenia drug.
A day after car sales were seen as "
not as bad as expected," comes Merrill Lynch and
downgrades General Motors (NYSE:
GM). Shares are down over 3% in premarket trading.
Posted Jul 2nd 2008 7:46AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX), Starbucks (SBUX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Circuit City Stores (CC), Economic data, Oil
U.S. stock futures were higher Wednesday morning, as Wall Street could try to having yet another positive session. While Starbucks news of store closing and reports Microsoft may still be interested in Yahoo helped lift sentiment, UnitedHealth already issued a warning this morning. Employment data is also on tap before the market opens.
U.S. stocks finally ended higher on Tuesday. Surprisingly, it was
car sales that helped the mood on the Street as as June sales came in not as bad as expected. The Dow industrials ended 32 points higher, or 0.28%, the S&P 500 added 4 points, or 0.38%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 11 points, or 0.52%.
Today, investors will have the ADP June private sector employment figures to chew on ahead of the government's report tomorrow. The employment report is expected to be released at 8:15 a.m. EDT. Then, at 10 a.m., May factory orders are due out.
Also on the docket today is weekly crude inventories, usually released at 10:30 a.m. EDT. While oil came off highs Tuesday due to a slightly stronger dollar, it again
rose above $141 a barrel Wednesday, due to persistent supply concerns that has analysts warning of higher prices yet. An IEA report saying supplies will remain tight and demand will likely grow despite higher prices helped push prices higher.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures higher on SBUX, YHOO, ahead of inventory report
Posted Jun 27th 2008 8:25AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Management, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Employees, Sony Corp ADR (SNE), KB HOME (KBH), Intuit Inc (INTU)
Before the bell: Futures drift lower as oil sets another record highSince Apple Inc (NASDAQ:
AAPL) is no longer insisting on revenue sharing from mobile operators selling its iPhone, China Mobile Ltd (NYSE:
CHL) said this
cleared the biggest hurdle in bringing the iPhone to mainland China. They just have to resolve some practical issues now.
KB Home (NYSE:
KBH) shares climbed over 5.8% in after-hours trading Thursday. The builder is to report results this morning, a quarterly loss is expected.
Sony Ericsson, the joint venture between Sony (NYSE:
SNE) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:
ERIC)
warned Friday it might not see any profit growth in the second quarter, due to slowing demand for some of its higher-priced phones and a delay in shipping new models to the market and will also experience a gross margin squeeze. ERIC shares are down about 6% in premarket trading.
Continue reading Before the bell: KBH, AAPL, ERIC, INTU, TM, MSFT
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