PRE-MARKET UPDATE
Equities are taking a breather this morning, which is no huge shock considering the gains we have seen. DJIA futures are down about 30 points and S&P futures are down about 3 points this morning. Profit taking is the real reason rather than anything sinister after the DJIA hit 10,000 again. For context, the first time the DJIA hit 10,000 was in 1999. European stocks are directionless in late-morning trading and Asia is traded marginally higher. Treasuries are trading lower overseas prices with the h10-Year yielding 3.455% and the 30-Year yield is 4.31%. Commodities are trading mixed again with NYMEX WTI Crude up almost $0.40 per barrel and up over $75.00.50 per barrel. Gold is down 0-.8% at $1,053.35.
ECONOMIC & MACRO EVENTS
These are today’s top economic data:
8:30 AM EST Weekly Jobless Claims
8:30 AM EST NY Empire Manufacturing (OCT)
8:30 AM EST SEPT CPI
10:30 Weekly energy inventories.
Earnings Today: Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs, IBM (IBM), Google (GOOG).
ANALYST UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES
Acorda (ACOR) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
OpenTable (OPEN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Sunpower (SPWRA) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
ASML (ASML) Cut to Sell at Citi.
Travelers Cos (TRV) Cut To Market Perform at KBW.
Western Digital (WDC) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
BULLISH EVENTS
Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) really beat earnings. The investment banking firm, or bank holding company with no real bank, posted earnings at $5.25 EPS vs. $4.24 estimates, but the unofficial whisper number was up at or above $5.00 after JPMorgan knocked the cover off the ball yesterday. Shares are actually down a tad on the news.
Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS) posted $0.12 EPS vs. $0.07 estimates on Revenue of $332 million up 19% and above the $322 million estimates. The chip company also sees Q4 revenue of $333 to 343 million vs. consensus of $328 million with margin of 28-30%. Shares are actually down about 1% premarket.
Crown Holdings (CCK) has reported Q3 EPS of $0.81. This is ahead of the $0.80 estimates. Revenue fell by 4% to $2.28 billion, which is under the estimates of $2.34 billion. Shares were marginally higher by +0.6%, but there feels like no real direction yet.
Nokia (NOK) is going to be tough to handicap this morning for a real direction oin the news. Its earnings were $0.17 EPS vs. $0.14 estimates. Unfortunately, Nokia took a $908 million goodwill writedown at its networks unit due to challenging market conditions.
Flextronics is growing. It and Suzhou Wuzhong Economic Development Zone and Jiangsu Wuzhong Export Processing Zone announced that the company will expand its presence in China through the development of a new facility in Wuzhong.
BEARISH EVENTS
Cisco Systems (CSCO) is trading down as a large group of Tandberg shareholders rejected the $3 billion buyout for its videoconferencing add-on ability. This has some thinking that Cisco will be forced to raise its bid.
Cognizant (CTSH) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire UBS's Indian Service Centre Private Limited group. This is the Hyderabad, India-based captive service provider under the UBS Group.
The NASDAQ OMX Group (NDAQ) is reaching down a bit. The exchange announced that it will establish a new listing market called BX for companies that do not qualify for an exchange listing. BX will be a modern venue for companies that aspire to list on, or return to, The NASDAQ Stock Market. The deal is subject to SEC approval.
Research In Motion (RIMM) introduced the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone through Vodafone (VOD) for customers in seven European countries as well as South Africa.
La Jolla Pharmaceutical (LJPC) is dead. The company announced voting on a Plan of Complete Liquidation and Dissolution. If approved, co would expect to dissolve shortly after the holders' meeting and would then commence a liquidation process. As of August 31, 2009, co had cash, net of liabilities and obligations, of around $4.4 million.
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