MARKET UPDATE
Equities are indicated higher on the heels of a strong Intel earnings report, although the futures have not added to last night's gains. DJIA futures are up 0.4% and S&P Futures are up almost 1%. The European markets are where the real strength is as the FTSE, DAX, and CAC were all up over 1.3% in late-morning trading. Asia was mixed with Japan's NIKKEI down -0.2% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng was up 2%.
Treasuries are trading lower overseas prices because of equity strength and the recovery. The 10-Year yield is 3.35% and the 30-Year yield is 4.19%. Commodities are trading up again with NYMEX WTI Crude up $0.87 above the $75.00 mark at $75.05 per barrel. Gold is up yet again by 0.2% at almost $1065.00.
Healthcare again may be a focus after The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has approved an $829 billion healthcare plan yesterday in a bid to extend health insurance coverage to another 29 million people. The measure yesterday had a public exchange but did not have a public option.
ECONOMIC & MACRO EVENTS
These are today’s top economic data:
8:30 AM Export & Imp[ort Prices (Sept.)
8:30 AM Retail Sales (Sept.)
10:00 AM Business Inventories (August)
2:00 PM FOMC Minutes from the Sept. meeting
Earnings Today: Abbott Labs (ABT), ASML (ASML), JPMorgan (JPM), Xilinx (XLNX). Biggies for Thursday are Citigroup (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (GS), IBM (IBM), and Google (GOOG).
ANALYST UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES
AMR Corp. (AMR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Answers Corp. (ANSW) Raised to Buy at Canaccord.
Barrick Gold (ABX) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Continental Airlines (CAL) Raised to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Computer Sciences (CSC) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Goldcorp (GG) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Harley-Davidson (HOG) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Agco Corp. (AGCO) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Apartment Investment & Management Co. (AIV) Cut to Underperform at BofA Merrill Lynch.
Airtran Holdings (AAI) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
JetBlue (JBLU) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Tractor Supply Co. (TSCO) Started as Underweight at JPMorgan.
Valero (VLO) Cut to Sell at Soleil.
BULLISH EVENTS
Centennial Communications (CYCL) traded up yesterday but the announcement came after the closing bell that AT&T won antitrust approval to buy Centennial. The deal is subject to divestitures but that will close the gap on the wide arbitrage spreads in the deal after it has been pending for close to a year.
Intel (INTC) managed to beat earnings and beat the whisper numbers. It also raised guidance to above the higher-end of what analysts were calling for based upon strong consumer demand.
Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) has shown that solar is not going to be in the dark this quarter for at least some players in the solar sector as it raised shipment and revenues to a range of $210 million to $215 million, with Thomson Reuters estimates being $202.7 million.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) blew earnings away at $0.82 EPS vs $0.52 EPS. The bank also noted that it is seeing some stabilization in consumer credit. This is why it is America's cleanest bank.
CSX Corp. (CSX) posted lower earnings but did beat estimates. The railroad giant posted $0.74 EPS vs. $0.71 estimates and noted that the worst of the recession is over.
BEARISH EVENTS
Conseco Inc. (CNO) is soaring on a secondary offering of securities. The reason it rose despite the dilution is because Paulson & Co. took down a 9.9% stake of the stock. Usually a secondary this large would be bad, but not when Paulson & Co. gets in it that big.
The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) agreed to sell Business Week to Bloomberg LP. Financial terms were not disclosed, but it is believed that the publication was effectively a give-away after interested buyers gave up and walked away during the buying process.
Internet Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICGE) filed two shelf registration statements with the SEC. The company said that it does not have any immediate plans to sell securities, but traders often assume a securities sale is imminent when two filings are sent in at once.
BioMimetic Therapeutics, Inc. (BMTI) was crushed after the close. The company announced positive top-line data from its Augment bone graft North American pivotal trial, but apparently this was not enough for what was expected. Shares fell by 16% as the biggest loser last night.
U.S. Bancorp (USB) signed a pact with BB&T (BBT) to purchase approximately $800M in deposits and certain branch locations of BB&T’s Nevada banking segment operations.
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