Market News

[fedgolfer]

bloomberg radio just atributed this afternoon's selloff to JPMorgan's lowering the price target of BIDU... yeah right, it's ridiculous what the media atributes big price run-ups and declines across indices to. I hate to say it, but the boys from Fast Money will have a better explanation than BIDU. But I guess we all know its the big investors making their plays at the small guys expense.

 

[weatherweenie]

Briefing.com
Reportedly, the decline is due to European inflation warnings made by Axel Weber, a European Central Bank Council (ECB) member. Weber stated that although the ECB has temporarily paused its rate hikes, in his opinion the ECB may need to raise rates to a "restrictive" level.

 

[weatherweenie]

General Electric reports EPS in-line, revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line; reaffirms FY07 EPS guidance (GE) 41.60 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.50 per share, excluding non-recurring items, in-line with the Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.50; revenues rose 12.3% year/year to $42.53 bln vs the $42.44 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.67-0.69, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.68 consensus. Co reaffirms guidance for FY07, sees EPS of $2.19-2.22, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $2.21 consensus.

 

[weatherweenie]

(MarketWatch) -- Home builder Centex Corp.on Friday flagged that it expects to take around $1 billion in charges for its fiscal second-quarter and said sales have fallen 13% due to "extremely difficult" housing market conditions. The company said it will record an impairment of around $850 million for neighbourhood and land inventory as well as a $40 million write-off for land holdings in joint ventures. Other charges include $40 million for option deposits and pre-acquisition costs, $65 million of goodwill impairment and $60 million of losses related to a subsidiary's mortgage market and credit exposure. The company closed 7,350 units in the quarter, down 14% and sales net sales were 5,953 units. Backlog slumped 38% to 9,633 units. Centex also cut its cash flow forecast for the year to $500 million from $750 million.

 

[weatherweenie]

McDonald's worldwide same-store sales up 11.5%
McDonald's Q3 same-store sales up 6.9%
McDonald's Sept. same-store sales up 5.9%
McDonald's sees Q3 earnings 89 cents per share - MarketWatch

 

[weatherweenie]

Briefing.com
08:00 am : S&P futures vs fair value: -3.2. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -0.5. Futures are pointing to a slightly lower open. General Electric (GE) reported earnings that were in-line with expectations. There is also news that Oracle (ORCL) has made an offer to acquire BEA Systems (BEAS). The NY Times reported that there is a big shake up going on at Citigroup (C).

 

[weatherweenie]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Wholesale prices surged 1.1% in September, led by rising energy and food prices, the Labor Department reported Friday. This is the largest increase since February. Energy prices jumped 4.1% in September, the biggest increase since last November. Food prices rose 1.5%. Excluding volatile food and energy, however, the core producer price index rose a less-than-expected 0.1% on lower car prices. Economists expected the PPI to rise 0.4% and the core to rise 0.2%.

 

[weatherweenie]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. retail sales were stronger than expected in September, rising 0.6% in September on strong sales of gasoline, autos and food, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

Excluding vehicles, sales increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, as expected. Excluding both vehicles and gasoline, sales increased 0.2%, the government said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...x?guid={FD42B14E-3751-4593-B1EA-C2094C86E81E}

 

[weatherweenie]

08:33 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +0.6. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +5.5. Futures get a boost after a few economic releases. Just reported, retail sales for September rose 0.6% and core PPI rose 0.1%. Briefing.com expected retail sales to rise 0.5% and core PPI to rise 0.2%.

 

[weatherweenie]

Briefing.com:
08:00 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +0.2. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -1.5. Futures are pointing to flat opening. Citigroup reported a 57% drop in third quarter net income. Crude oil is currently $84.95 per barrel, reportedly due to concerns Turkey may invade northern Iraq.

 

[weatherweenie]

9:00am ET
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: +2.5. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +2.0. Futures get a slight boost following a better than expected N.Y. Empire State Index report. The regional manufacturing report's October reading came in at 28.8 compared to the consensus estimate that called for a reading of 13.1.

 

[tdvorak]

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38285&dcn=todaysnews

Interesting reading

 

[weatherweenie]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSWNAS654520071016?rpc=44

AN FRANCISCO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest technology services company, reported higher quarterly earnings on Tuesday, helped by improved profitability in services business and software company purchases. Third-quarter net income rose to $2.36 billion, or $1.68 per share, from $2.22 billion, or $1.45 per share, a year earlier. Revenue advanced to $24.1 billion from $22.6 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected revenue of $24.1 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

 

[weatherweenie]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071016/20071016006434.html?.v=1

Intel Posts Record Third-Quarter Revenue
Tuesday October 16, 4:14 pm ET
-- Revenue $10.1 Billion, up 15 Percent Year-over-Year
-- Operating Income $2.2 Billion, up 64 Percent Year-over-Year
-- Record Microprocessor, Chipset and Flash Unit Shipments
-- Net Income $1.9 Billion
-- EPS 31 Cents SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intel Corporation today announced third-quarter revenue of $10.1 billion, operating income of $2.2 billion, net income of $1.9 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 31 cents.

 

[weatherweenie]

(MarketWatch) -- Seagate Technology Inc.said late Tuesday its fiscal first-quarter net income rose to $355 million, or 64 cents a share, from $19 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $3.29 billion from $2.79 billion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial estimated earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $3.22 billion.

 

[weatherweenie]

Briefing.com
08:35 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +9.0. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +25.0. In September, Core CPI rose 0.2% , which is in-line with the consensus estimate. Housing Starts were 1191K and Building Starts were 1226K; the readings are slightly lower than the consensus estimate.

 

[weatherweenie]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071017/20071017006130.html?.v=2



EBAY INC. ANNOUNCES THIRD QUARTER 2007 FINANCIAL RESULTS
eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY - News; www.ebay.com) reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2007.
eBay reported record consolidated Q3-07 net revenues of $1.89 billion, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 30%. GAAP operating loss was $938 million in Q3-07, representing (50%) of net revenues, compared to GAAP operating income of $339 million in Q3-06. GAAP net loss in Q3-07 was $936 million, or $0.69 loss per diluted share. Both the GAAP operating loss and GAAP net loss were the result of the previously announced goodwill impairment charge related to eBay's acquisition of Skype.

 

[offtrack]

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/category/deal-graveyard/

According to a report Tuesday from Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary & Data, the percentage of such companies with debt trading at more than 10 percentage points more than U.S. Treasurys of comparable maturities increased to 3.2% in September from 2.9% in August. For five months before that, the rate was less than 1%. While those still are considered relatively tight spreads by historical standards — and default rates still are puny — they suggest that the good days for risky borrowers may be numbered


Way too early for the scare headline but worth watching for the future

 

[weatherweenie]

[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -4.8. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -8.5. Futures point to a negative opening due to some worrisome news from the financial sector. Bank of America (BAC) pushed the futures market into negative territory after the company’s earnings fell well short of the consensus estimate. Washington Mutual (WM) and E*Trade (ETFC) missing their earnings estimates is also weighing on the market as is news that the SEC has opened an informal investigation on the stock sales of Countrywide’s (CFC) CEO.

 

[weatherweenie]

Briefing.com: 08:00 am : S&P futures vs fair value: -6.7. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +5.5. Futures point to a mixed opening. Google (GOOG), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Sandisk (SNDK), Harley-Davidson (HOG) and 3M (MMM) topped their earning expectations. Meanwhile, Honeywell (HON), Caterpillar (CAT) and Wachovia (WB) missed their earnings estimates. Crude oil is pushing towards $90 a barrel, and is weighing on the market.