MARKET UPDATE
Equities are mixed after yesterday's big rally in the U.S. after higher GDP. DJIA futures are down close to 30 points and S&P futures are down about 3 points. European markets are mixed as the FTSE is marginally positive and as the CAC and DAX are both marginally lowe. Asia followed the US gains with the NIKKEI up 1.5% and the HANG SENG up 2.3%.
Crude oil is up marginally with NYMEX WTI trading up $0.20 per barrel at $77.66 in early trading. Gold is also up with a gain of 0.6% around $1034.00 per ounce.
ECONOMIC & MACRO EVENTS
These are today’s top economic data:
8:30 AM EST employment cost index
8:30 AM EST personal income & spending
9:45 AM EST Chicago PMI
9:55 AM EST University Of Michigan Consumer Confidence
ANALYST UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES
Coach (NYSE: COH) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Kellogg (NYSE: K) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Zumiez (NYSE: ZUMZ) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Syntel (SYNT) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
BULLISH EVENTS
Genworth (GNW) soared in pre-market indications and after-hours trading on top of big gains yesterday. The company posted an unexpected profit even though revenue was softer than expected.
CEC Entertainment Inc. (CEC) said its quarterly profit rose 28% as Chuck E. Cheese sales defied H1N1 fears and came in above estimates. This year was also not marred by exponentially higher cheese costs as it had seen in 2008. Shares are indicated up almost 10%.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (HTZ) said that its third-quarter profit rose four-fold on charge drops and cost cutting measures. Shares are indicated up 3%.
BMC Software Inc. (BMC) looks higher although no real volume has been seen this morning and shares are already close to 52-week highs. The software and IT company said that its quarterly profits rose 35% on better business software bookings, although on lower revenue. BMC also raised its 2009 earnings guidance.
Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) has no news. But not to highlight the king of chocolate ahead of Halloween might be a crime. Shares have been range-bound all week.
BEARISH EVENTS
Beckman Coulter Inc. (BEC) may be better than it sounds, but restructuring and acquisition costs bit into better sales as earnings on a net basis were down 90%. On an operational basis it beat estimates and it also boosted its forecast for 2009.
Garmin (GRMN) is still under pressure over this week's announcement of Google's personal navigation launch for free on its Android phones. Again, this should not be thought of as anything that GPS and PND investors did not know was coming down the pipe, although the timing was the surprise.
McAfee Inc. (MFE) did not get the same love as rival Symantec. The security software firm said that profits fell by 25% in Q3 as its margins were hit on higher operating costs despite higher revenues. There was an upgrade this morning but last night's 5% drop seems to have shares in the red early this morning.
Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) posted a drop in revenue to $673.5 million compared to $757.6 million a year ago. The company also posted a loss of -$1.8 millio versus income of $31 million a year ago.
Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: CREL) was a huge winner yesterday that traded above the buyout price of $3.50 from Vector Group, a private equity firm that owns 67% of Corel. Be advised that talks fell through before when Vector tried to buy Corel for about $11.00 before.
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