Style Underperformer:
Large-Cap Growth (+1.34%)
Sector Underperformers:
Gold (-.35%), Insurance (-.17%) and Homebuilders (+.23%)
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
CVS, ANDE, ANSS, TDS, ELMG, WFMI, ALNY, GYMB, LMNX, FRED, EBIX, PL, CCC, ARO, HOS and JCP
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
1) CVS 2) AEO 3) ADM 4) HK 5) ALL
Style Outperformer:
Small-Cap Growth (+1.96%)
Sector Outperformers:
Software (+2.13%), Biotech (+2.11%) and Semis (+2.10%)
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
DOX, VIV, PNR, PLCE, CKP, GPS, PTR, OLN, GIVN, FSYS, DGIT, THOR, ITWO, MEND, RSTI, CECO, HURN, MELI, CTCM, AMMD, QCOM, MCHP, BCRX, SXCI, CSCO, LAMR, GRMN, RX, GGC, WG and TI
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
1) CVS 2) VIA/B 3) ESI 4) CHS 5) RX
BNO Breaking Global News of Note
Yahoo Most Popular Biz Stories
Briefing.com Stock Market Update
Stocks On The Move
Upgrades/Downgrades
StockCharts Market Performance Summary
Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Undeterred by Republican election triumphs in Virginia and New Jersey, Democratic leaders put the U.S. House on a path to vote as early as Saturday on the most sweeping overhaul of health-care policy in four decades. The election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia won’t affect how the House proceeds on legislation to extend insurance to 36 million people and create a government- run program to compete with private insurers, lawmakers said. Party leaders signaled they’re ready for the House to begin debating the legislation and vote on its final passage by filing a 42-page amendment that made last-minute changes to the bill. The filing last night triggered a 72-hour waiting period that Democrats pledged to give Republicans before a vote. “We are on the verge of doing something great,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters today after meeting with lawmakers in
- Cisco Systems Inc.(CSCO), the biggest maker of networking equipment, topped analysts’ profit estimates after curtailing hiring, shuttering offices and cutting travel. Cisco also said it would expand its stock buyback plan by $10 billion. Cisco, based in
- News Corp.(NWS/A), owner of the Twentieth Century Fox film studio, raised its full-year forecast after reporting first-quarter profit gained 11 percent, driven by box- office gains from films including “Ice Age.” Net income increased to $571 million, or 22 cents a share, from $515 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier, the
- China should withdraw its monetary stimulus to correct “imbalances” in the economy and avoid bad loans from surging among the nation’s banks, said Aberdeen Asset Management Co., which manages $40 billion in Asian equities. “The government is stimulating the economy through the banks,” Nicholas Yeo, head of Hong Kong and
- New laws for the derivatives industry would cost the U.S. government $872 million to implement as regulators increase oversight as part of expanded powers to police the market, the Congressional Budget Office said. Legislation to create stricter rules for derivatives that is making its way through Congress would cost the Securities and Exchange Commission $581 million for fiscal 2010-2014, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission $291 million, the CBO said in an estimate dated yesterday.
- Passengers on Boston subways, the oldest public transit system in the U.S., and regional commuter trains face the potential for serious injury because the state agency in charge lacks funds for repairs, a report today said. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, known as the T, operates “under a mountain of red ink,” with 51 separate safety projects unfunded, the report said. Those fixes, estimated at $543 million, are needed for problems that “demonstrate imminent danger to life or limb of passengers and/or employees,” the report said. In some places, track fasteners are corroding and the tracks are shifting out of alignment with “the possibility of train derailment,” said the report, written by a panel led by David F. D’Alessandro, former chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services. Along one stretch of the subway’s Red Line in
- Store rents in Manhattan fell in the third quarter in seven of 10 districts as unemployment and the recession cut spending. Fifth Avenue from 42nd to 49th streets in Midtown was the hardest hit with rents falling 30 percent from the second quarter to $441 a square foot, broker CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. the broker said today in a statement. Retail rents on
Wall Street Journal:
- Many hedge funds have bounced back from a rough 2008 and, for the most part, managers are projected to pay employees as if that troubled year never happened. According to a report conducted by executive search firm Glocap Search LLC, some portions of which were reviewed by Dow Jones Newswires, pay for hedge-fund employees who survived last year's hedge-fund culling is expected to rise slightly over compensation in 2008. Pay still remains lower than in 2007, when the average hedge fund was up double digits. "Our numbers show that [2009] is being treated in isolation," said Adam Zoia, chief executive of Glocap and head of the company's hedge-fund practice. Zoia said the estimates for 2009 are through Oct. 1, and will be correct as long as there's no "material" change in hedge-fund performance between now and the end of the year. The report is based on information gathered by Glocap recruiters, fund managers and industry professionals. The report, which breaks down hedge-fund firms by their 2009 performance, shows that total average compensation this year at funds that have performed well relative to their industry peers are projected to be about 2% higher than in 2008. More importantly, employees at those funds are expected to make only about 5.3% less in 2009 than they made in 2007, not that big a disparity considering the average hedge fund's performance was down about 20% last year and many other funds were closed. "What happened last year was the owners of the hedge funds - the partners - took a large paycut so employees would not have to take as large a paycut," Zoia said.
- Merck & Co.(MRK) Chief Executive Richard Clark said the drug maker is "actively looking" to buy biotechnology companies in the "single-digit" billions of dollars, but another major takeover of the size of Schering-Plough is "off the table right now." In an interview, Mr. Clark said Merck is interested in either acquiring outright biotech companies with promising therapies or technologies, or opportunities to partner with them or license rights from them.
- Incentive pay on Wall Street is set to rise by about 40% as stronger financial markets collide with the political backlash over bonuses, according to a closely watched survey set to be released Thursday. Johnson Associates, a compensation consulting firm in
- TD Bank, a unit of Canadian banking giant TD Bank Financial Group, is facing accusations from customers that the bank allowed their accounts to be emptied without their approval. Investors allege the bank's actions may have helped
- Two House Republicans warned that growing losses at the Federal Housing Administration could lead to a taxpayer-funded bailout and have asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development for data backing up the FHA’s assertion that it won’t need to ask Congress for any taxpayer money. “Congress and HUD must take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that this program operates in a manner that does not expose the taxpayer to yet another bailout,” wrote Republicans Darrell Issa of
- This week, Verizon is rolling out a device that finally gives it a more credible alternative. This new $200 phone is the Motorola Droid and it's the first Verizon model to run Google's Android smart-phone operating system. I've been testing the Droid, and while it has some significant drawbacks, I regard it as a success overall. It's the best super-smart phone Verizon offers, the best Motorola phone I've tested and the best hardware so far to run Android. I can recommend the Droid to Verizon loyalists who have lusted for a better smart phone, but don't want to switch networks.
- The Senate on Wednesday passed legislation that would give tax breaks to big companies hit by the recession and expand a credit for homebuyers, while raising other corporate levies, particularly for multinationals. The proposed tax increases are aimed at offsetting the cost to the government of the breaks, making the exact impact on individual businesses and industries difficult to judge. But business leaders worry that the measure could be a sign of more taxes to come, as lawmakers seek ways to pay for new measures without adding to the gaping federal deficit. "We clearly are going to have tax increases going forward," said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The latest changes to business taxes are contained in a measure that would extend unemployment benefits by as much as 20 weeks from the current 79 weeks.
- A key Senate lawmaker is readying legislation that would dramatically redraw how the financial system is regulated, setting the chamber on a collision course with both the House of Representatives and the Obama administration, which have championed markedly different approaches. The bill, which is being readied by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), would strip almost all bank-supervision powers from the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. In their place, the bill would create a new agency in charge of supervising all banks and bank-holding companies, even the country's largest and most complex institutions. Mr. Dodd's proposal also would create a powerful council of regulators, overseen by an independent White House appointee, charged with monitoring risks to the financial system.
- Pending legislation aimed at tightening regulation of financial services would give state authorities significant clout in overseeing hedge funds, a move some regulators fear could undermine Congress's goal. The House Financial Services Committee passed a bill Wednesday that gives states power to regulate all investment advisers, including hedge funds, that manage less than $100 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission would oversee larger advisers.
- The departing director of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency declared Wednesday that efforts to curb nuclear proliferation were in "tatters," but he held out hope that current talks over Iran's nuclear program could open "a new era" between the West and Tehran.Mohamed ElBaradei, who leaves Dec. 1 after 12 years as director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Council on Foreign Relations that 50 years of mistrust threatens the proposed deal for Iran to ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing into medical isotopes.
- Tuesday's elections should put a scare into red state Democrats—and a few blue state ones, too.
CNBC.com:
IBD:
- Supplement manufacturer and retailer NBTY (NTY) is acting as industry consolidator. It has made 28 acquisitions in the last 20 years. This has added a large portfolio of brands to its core Nature's Bounty line, including Rexall, Good 'N Natural, Met-Rx, Flex-a-min and Ester-C.
Business Week:
- A trio of senators with differing political views is working behind-the-scenes to rescue troubled climate legislation. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday they would work in conjunction with the White House to patch together a bill that could pass the U.S. Senate. The three senators met individually with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change. "Our effort is to try to reach out to broaden the base of support ... ," Kerry said at an afternoon news conference. "The key here is to really negotiate once, in a sense." Graham, who has come under fire in his home state for his support of action on climate change, said working on legislation was a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to solve two problems: heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution and the country's dependence on foreign sources of fuel.
Lloyd’s List:
- MAERSK Line chief executive Eivind Kolding has warned that state bailouts of shipping lines could delay a very necessary restructuring of the container shipping industry. Mr Kolding told Lloyd’s List that opposition to state bailouts for shipping lines was a matter of principle.
Politico:
- On much of Obama’s presidency, there is a surprising bipartisan consensus on what has worked well and what has not. POLITICO spoke to a dozen political insiders and pulled together this list of Obama's ten best, and ten worst, moves of the year.
Rasmussen:
The Business Insider:
- It's time for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) to find a buyer -- before it's too late.
- The federal government and some states are plugging into the future of electric cars with subsidies to develop charging stations. But their plans are generating opposition. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $2.4 billion in stimulus money in August to build electric vehicles and support them with charging stations. The goal is to promote clean energy and reduce
- Used car prices are up 16% from a year ago, better than three times the usual 4.6% annual increase, Edmunds.com reports. The reason is simple supply and demand. With fewer new cars being sold, dealers are getting fewer trade-ins. Also, rental car and government fleets have dramatically reduced their new car purchases, a prime source of fresh used cars when they are cast out after a year or two of service. But it appears that cash for clunkers may also have played a role in boosting prices out of reach of many Americans who need cheap, reliable transportation to weather high unemployment and a weak economy. The government cash-for-clunkers program's provision that all the 678,024 gas guzzlers brought in to be traded for new vehicles be destroyed could be another key factor. Edmunds notes that the highest used car price appreciation has come in some of the cars that were the biggest targets of the clunkers program -- pickups, up 26.2%, and midsize SUVs, up 25.4%. Even the prices of used minivans -- a segment that many believe is out of fashion now that there are so many crossover choices -- were up 27.1%. It already has been an expensive outing for taxpayers: The program, which cost nearly $3 billion in taxpayer funds, gave incentives of up to $4,500 for people who traded in old, inefficient vehicles for gas-thrifty new ones. Used car dealers predicted just this scenario when they were griping over the summer about the provision of the law that required cars turned in to be destroyed, many with relatively low miles on the odometer. "It's going to drive prices up of some of the most affordable vehicles we have on the road," said Kelley Blue Book analyst Alec Gutierrez at the time. And that hurts the families most desperate for cheap, reliable transportation. "Those are the cars that lower-income families need," says Geoff Smartt, owner of Smartt Cars in Caldwell, Idaho, when we interviewed him in August.
Reuters:
- The Federal Reserve will continue to foster a U.S. dollar-funded carry trade with its near-zero interest rate policy, Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of Pacific Investment Management Inc., said on Wednesday. The so-called carry trade refers to borrowing at low short-term rates -- in this case, in the U.S. dollar -- to buy high-yielding, long-dated securities in other markets. The intention is to profit from the rate differential, although rising short-term rates make this strategy riskier and less profitable. Investors worldwide will keep borrowing dollars to buy assets including equities and commodities, fueling the risk of huge bubbles, given the Fed's stance, El-Erian told Reuters.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is exploring reforms that could provide companies with more information about the identity of their shareholders, a top agency official said on Wednesday. Companies usually have little information about stockholders due to long-standing practices about shareholder anonymity, and many would like better ways to contact them.Brett Breheny, deputy director of legal and regulatory policy in the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, said on Wednesday that the SEC has been discussing changes.
Financial Times:
- Less than a fortnight ago, Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of Total, beseeched politicians to discuss energy security, not only the environment, at the
Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (ADP), target $45.
Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.25% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 futures -.40%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.41%.
Morning Preview
BNO Breaking Global News of Note
Yahoo Most Popular Biz Stories
MarketWatch Pre-market Commentary
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Stock Quote/Chart
WSJ Intl Markets Performance
Commodity Futures
IBD New America
Economic Preview/Calendar
Earnings Calendar
Who’s Speaking?
Upgrades/Downgrades
Politico Headlines
Rasmussen Reports Polling
Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (WEN)/.06
- (SMG)/-.33
- (CVS)/.64
- (MGM)/-.07
- (CAH)/.43
- (DPS)/.49
- (CI)/1.03
- (IRF)/-.37
- (NVDA)/.10
- (CSTR)/.25
- (ASEI)/.87
- (IPI)/.15
- (SBUX)/.21
- (ENOC)/.77
- (CBS)/.22
- (IGT)/.16
- (SLE)/.18
- (DTV)/.39
- (PSA)/1.24
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Preliminary 3Q Non-Farm Productivity is estimated to rise +6.5% versus a +6.6% gain in 2Q.
- Preliminary 3Q Unit Labor Costs are estimated to fall -4.2% versus a -5.9% decline in 2Q.
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 522K versus 530K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 5750K versus 5797K prior.
Upcoming Splits
- None of Note
Other Potential Market Movers
- The BoE rate decision, ECB rate decision, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, ICSC retail monthly same-store-sales, (ATHR) analyst day, (SCHW) business update, (EHTH) analyst day, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Business/Government Services Conference, Goldman Sachs Industrial Conference, Keefe Bruyette Woods Brokerage & Market Structure Conference and the Lazard Tech/Media Day could also impact trading today.
Evening Review
BNO Breaking Global News of Note
Yahoo Most Popular Biz Stories