MARKET UPDATE
Equities are very mixed. DJIA futures were down 0.1% and S&P futures were up 0.1%. Europe: FTSE -0.5%; CAC -0.4%; DAX -0.3%. Asia: Nikkei -1.3%; Hang Seng -0.6%; Shanghai +0.8%. The Bank of England followed the FOMC path with a no-rate-hike policy, and it increased its bond buying and liquidity adding measures. There was also no rate hike out of the European Central Bank. All of this is ahead of the Big Kahuna unemployment and non-Farm payrolls data from the US Department of Labor tomorrow.
ECONOMIC & MACRO EVENTS
These are today’s top economic data:
8:30 AM EST Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 AM EST Productivity and Unit Labor Costs
10:30 AM EST Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventories
Major earnings reports are due from ALD, ATML, BID. CBS, CVS, CTL, CROX, EOG, JDSU, HANS, LEAP, NVDA, SBUX, SIRI, TWC, VRSN
ANALYST UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES
NovaVax (NVAX) Started as Buy at Merriman Curhan.
YM BioSciences (YMI) Started as Buy at Merriman Curhan.
Comcast (CMCSA) Cut to Hold at Collins Stewart.
Molson Coors (TAP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
SourceForge (LNUX) Cut to Neutral at Merriman.
THQ Inc. (THQI) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
BULLISH EVENTS
Research In Motion's (RIMM) board has authorized a $1.2 billion (or approximately 21 million shares) in a share buyback program. The company has not repurchased any shares over the last year. Shares are up by about +3%.
eBay (EBAY) may be closer to a done deal. The reports have private equity investors and Skype founders closer to a settlement in a deal that will give them 10% of Skype and a presence on the board.
Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) beat earnings last night. The gold giant posted Q3 EPS of $0.19 vs. $0.16 estimates. Revenue rose some 25% to $692M vs. $614M estimates.
Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ: COST) reported that same store sales rose by 5% in October versus estimates of +4.7%. Be advised that part of the gains were helped by a weak U.S. Dollar that helped its international sales.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) posted better-than-expected quarterly numbers for the period ending October 24. Revenue fell 13% to $9 billion. EPS was $0.39, down 19%. Cisco’s stock rose almost $1 to $24.17 after the report.
BEARISH EVENTS
QUALCOMM (QCOM) had a fairly dull quarter as the CDMA leader reported revenue of $2.69 billion, down 19% on the same period last year, and just below analysts' estimate of $2.72 billion. Revenue also declined 2% compared to the third quarter. Its earnings were $0.48 EPS vs $0.52 estimates.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) beat its earnings with Q3 EPS of $0.76 vs. $0.75 estimates. This was the same for Time Warner Inc and Comcast yesterday and they did not rise. Revenue rose 3.5% to $4.5 billion, in line with estimates.
Toyota (TM) had two issues after posting a return to quarterly profits. It denied issues in a recall but more importantly it cut its 2009 earnings loss targets by half. That is good, but still very short of the old Toyota.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is back in the soup, but this is over Countrywide rather than over bonuses. It may also have no bearing at all on B of A itself. Angelo Mozilo tried to get out of facing government fraud charges, but US District Judge John Walter told Mozilo that he will indeed stand trial despite his efforts to get the case dismissed.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) may find itself under more negative press over Wall Street bonuses in an issue that is more of a sector take but can hurt their image. The bonus pool for Wall Street may be up 40% from last year.
Anonymous comments are disabled
The above content is provided for educational and informational purposes only, does not constitute a recommendation to enter in any securities transactions or to engage in any of the investment strategies presented in such content, and does not represent the opinions of Zecco or its employees.