Style Outperformer:
Small-cap Growth (+1.01%)
Sector Outperformers:
Steel (+1.76%), Homebuilders (+1.62%) and Computer Hardware (+1.32%)
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
BZP, CEO, CHL, CNP, FCX, BBL, IMO, PDLI, VPHM, OTEX, UHAL, XLTC, SDXC, GIII, MENT, TTWO, CETV, TSRA, OMTR, SOLF, OFIX, CHNR, FWLT, SINA, PWRD, DPTR, ENER, PAY, TWI, TY, STP, EXP, SKM, SHO and GFF
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
1) MEA 2) STP 3) PAY 4) PENN 5) RYL
Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, now running for the U.S. Senate, called for an end to the congressional ban on offshore drilling for oil and gas. ``I think we have to lift the congressional moratorium on drilling and it's got to be part of the portfolio,'' Warner said. Drilling should be one element of a broad energy plan that also includes alternative energy sources, nuclear power and coal, Warner, 53, said during an interview on Bloomberg Television. Democrats have been under increasing pressure to allow offshore drilling as Republicans push the issue as a way to lower gas prices. Mark Warner is scheduled to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention next week and is to campaign tomorrow in Virginia with presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. He said that he would not accept an invitation to join the ticket as vice president.
- Hewlett-Packard Co.(HPQ), the world's largest personal-computer maker, reported a 14 percent increase in third-quarter profit, beating analysts' estimates, as international demand and new notebook designs spurred sales. The shares rose as much as 4.4 percent in after-hours trading.
- Barack Obama and John McCain are locked in a tight battle for president. With the nominating conventions set to begin next week, Illinois Senator Barack Obama edges Arizona Senator John McCain 42 percent to 41 percent among registered voters, according to the latest Bloomberg/LA Times poll.
- Gold, down 21 percent from a record $1,033.90 an ounce in March, may be headed down after open interest in New York futures contracts for the precious metal plunged to the lowest level in 11 months. Open interest reached 365,611 on Aug. 12, down 26 percent from a four- month high on July 18 and the lowest since Sept. 10. Commercial users of the metal, including investors or mining companies, also have reduced their bets on price gains to the lowest since September. Net-long positions fell by 20 percent from a week earlier to 130,660 contracts on Aug. 15, the biggest drop and the lowest level since September. ``An outflow of passive and active investment money'' means ``it is hard to be positive about the out for precious metals over the next month or so,'' John Reade, the head of UB AG metals strategy in London.
- This year's drop in agricultural stocks, whose rally since 2003 outpaced the gains in technology shares that preceded the dot-com crash, may deepen as the economic slowdown reduces profits, according to Citigroup Inc. ``Investors have been stung of late in farm equipment and fertilizer stocks, but more pain could be coming,'' Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup's chief U.S. equity strategist, wrote in a research note on Aug. 18. ``There are significant cracks in the agricultural economy story. We have been very anxious that investors had gotten carried away with the global growth theme.'' Note the 842 percent rise in the agricultural index during the five-year period before its peak in June. That surpassed the 755 percent gain in the S&P 500 technology index from March 1995 to March 2000, when the industry and the rest of the U.S. stock market began a 2 1/2-year descent. Levkovich wrote that he's ``worried about what has been dubbed the `dot-corn' stocks relative to the dot-com names of the late 1990s.'' Low price-to-earnings ratios for agricultural shares ``should not provide any valuation comfort since that often reflects the market's ability to sniff out the likelihood of peak earnings,'' the New York-based strategist wrote.
- Chevron Corp.(CVX) resurrected plans to tap a 700 million-barrel oil field off Canada's east coast more than two years after the project collapsed amid a dispute with the provincial government over ownership stakes. Hebron's reserves would be worth about $80.3 billion at current oil prices. The field could supply every refinery on the U.S. East Coast for more than 16 months.
- A higher percentage of Wall Street job applicants passed the final test in a three-step process that may give them a hiring edge as the financial-services industry cuts jobs at the fastest pace in at least five years. Fifty-three percent passed the third stage of the Chartered Financial Analyst test, up from 50 percent last year, the CFA Institute said in a statement today. A record 92,081 people took the exam in June, including 14,569 who cleared two preliminary exams to qualify for the test that lets them obtain CFA designation, the Charlottesville, Virginia-based institute said.
- VeriFone Holdings Inc.(PAY), the biggest maker of electronic-payment equipment, soared 33 percent in extended trading after restating previous results and forecasting 2009 sales and profit that beat analysts' estimates.
- A worldwide food crisis that sent wheat, corn and rice prices to records and sparked riots earlier this year may be over after farmers boosted plantings, a top official in India's food ministry said. ``I don't think there's a crisis now,'' said T. Nanda Kumar, the country's food secretary, who is responsible for formulating food security policy in the world's second-most populous nation. ``Food will be available.''
- The Philippines cut its 2008 economic-growth forecast for the second time this year as faster inflation hurt consumption, adding pressure on the government to boost spending on food and fuel subsidies to the poor.
Wall Street Journal:
- Been Riding the Russian Boom? It’s Time to Cash In Your Chips. At the last count, ordinary Americans had more than $3 billion at stake in mutual funds that invest in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Recent events in central Asia show why they’re playing with fire. The risks in that country are far greater than most ordinary investors realize. And at current prices, shareholders aren’t being paid enough to take them.
- Mortgage giant Freddie Mac(FRE) was forced to offer unusually rich terms to investors in a $3 billion auction of its debt, raising anew concerns that the Treasury Department might be forced to intervene to prop up a company that is vital to the housing market.
- Dubai Corporate Probes Grow As Emirate Tightens Oversight. A police dragnet continues to widen among senior corporate executives here, in what appears to be a concerted push by government officials to put the shine back on this Mideast boomtown's damaged reputation.
- India's information-technology industry, the engine of the nation's economic resurgence, is losing steam.
MarketWatch.com:
- China has increased its power prices for the second time in two months, raising on-grid rates by about 5% to head off a looming power crisis. The National Development and Reform Commission said on its Website that the move would take effect Wednesday, and analysts said more such moves are likely ahead. "Beijing will raise power rates and fuel prices again this year. The government may also find other ways to support power producers to ensure stable power supply," said Merrill Lynch economist Ting Lu in a research note Tuesday.
- Music to a bull’s ears. Corporate insiders still buying stocks at an above-average rate. Another bullish straw in the wind is insiders' behavior since the stock market's July 15th bottom. Contrary to the normal pattern, in which insiders markedly pick up the pace of their selling as the market rises, insiders over the past five weeks they have only slightly increased that pace. It is an encouraging sign that insiders did not use the occasion of the recent rally to sell more of their shares.
CNNMoney.com:
- 10 cool tools for your mobile phone.
BusinessWeek.com:
- The Next Software Power? Peoplesoft founder Dave Duffield is building another software upstart that is attracting a lot of attention.
Financial Times:
- Barclays would consider buying a US wealth management company but is "highly unlikely" to bid for an investment bank, even with the depressed share prices of many Wall Street firms, Bob Diamond, the bank's president, said on Tuesday.
Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (FSLR), target $450.
- Reiterated Buy on (OMTR), target $30, added to Top Picks Live list.
- Reiterated Buy on (SPLS), raised estimates and boosted target to $32.
Night Trading
Asian Indices are unch. to +1.25% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.28%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.35%.
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Today in IBD
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Earnings of Note
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Upcoming Splits
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Economic Releases
10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil build of 1,000,000 barrels versus a -316,000 barrel drawdown the prior week. Gasoline supplies are expected to fall by 3,000,000 barrels versus a 6,394,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate inventories are expected to rise by 1,000,000 barrels versus a 1,759,000 barrel decline the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is expected to rise .35% versus a 1.06% decline the prior week.
Other Potential Market Movers
- The weekly MBA mortgage applications report could also impact trading today.
Bloomberg:
- NATO downgraded ties with Russia to protest the invasion of Georgia, struggling to go beyond verbal condemnation of Russia's first foreign military campaign since the collapse of the Soviet Union. ``There can be no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances,'' Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after allied foreign ministers met in Brussels today. He ruled out NATO-Russia meetings ``as long as Russian forces are basically occupying a large part of Georgia.''
- Medtronic Inc.(MDT), the world's second- largest device maker, said earnings beat analysts' estimates, driven by sales of a new heart stent and reductions in jobs and expenses.
- Venezuela's government extended its hold on the economy with accords to take majority stakes in the local units of cement companies Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd., and by seizing Cemex SAB's factories.
- Macau casino owners Las Vegas Sands Corp.(LVS), Wynn Resorts Ltd.(WYNN), MGM Mirage(MGM), and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. fell in New York trading after a report that China may increase travel curbs to the gambling center.
- Crude oil is rising $.98/bbl. on investment fund short-covering ahead of tomorrow’s EIA energy inventory data and a weaker US dollar.
- Russia's RTS Index fell to its lowest in almost two years and posted today's biggest drop among equity indexes tracked by Bloomberg as lower energy prices dragged down oil and gas producers. OAO Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company, fell to its lowest in almost five months, and OAO Gazprom, the world's largest natural-gas producer, slid the most in seven months. The dollar-denominated RTS dropped 5.6 percent to 1,678.16 at 5:06 p.m. in Moscow, the lowest since November 2006. The RTS has plunged 32 percent from its May 19 high on concern that the outlook for earnings at commodity producers, which dominate the index, is weakening amid a global economic slowdown. The index also fell when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attacked coal and steel producer OAO Mechel for its raw materials pricing and on Russia's invasion of Georgia on Aug. 8. ``Russia is overloaded with people trying to exit,'' said James Beadle, portfolio manager at Pilgrim Asset Management in Moscow.
Wall Street Journal:
- Russia Is Still a Hungry Empire.
NY Times:
- 18 New NYC Charter Schools to Open in September, Bloomberg Announces.
- Running a Hedge Fund Is Harder Than It Looks on TV.
The
- Barack Obama has proposed giving NASA an extra $2 billion, promising to make space exploration a higher priority if elected.
Reuters:
- Apple Inc.(AAPL) has released a software update for the iPhone following customers’ complaints that the handsets were losing connections. The software became available for download today.
- The top U.S. securities regulator plans to propose new short selling rules in the next few weeks. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said on Tuesday that the proposal "will focus on market-wide solutions" but is not intended to have any impact on the direction of prices. Cox also said fails to deliver "were reduced substantially" for the stocks covered under the SEC's recent emergency short selling rule.
- China's huge state banks are poised to report strong profit growth for the first half in 2008, thanks to wider margins and strong fee income, but funding costs are expected to rise in the second half, eroding growth. Chinese lenders are likely to face a harder time for the rest of the year and beyond as customers lock up funds in time deposits and move away from more profitable demand deposits, and as a weak stock market dents enthusiasm for investing in shares. Asset quality is expected to deteriorate as property firms are hit by Beijing's clampdown on borrowing and exporters are squeezed by a weakening U.S. economy and higher costs.
AFP:
- Seven Russian armored vehicles, three tanks and other military vehicles today left the Georgian city of
Canadian Business Online:
- Hedge fund operator Paul Eustace, a Canadian who controlled Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management, has been ordered to pay more than US$279 million to defrauded customers and more than US$12 million in civil penalties.
Arab Times:
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National:
- Aldar Properties PJSC,