Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
AKS/.54
ATVI/.09
AV/.18
AVID/.52
ABX/.04
NILE/.07
CTX/1.59
CECO/.28
CME/1.67
CTSH/.18
FFIV/.21
HAL/.36
LLL/.88
LMT/.65
MSTR/.51
RFMD/-.02
SINA/.28
TROW/.63
RIG/.05
VRTS/.21
WMS/.10
Splits
None of note.
Economic Data
Consumer Confidence for October estimated at 94.0 versus 96.8 in September.
Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on CIT, SII, ADP, AMT, VLTR and Underperform on VRTX.
Late-Night News
Asian indices are mixed as strength in Australia is being offset by weakness in Taiwan and China. Oracle's $7.7 billion takeover bid for Peoplesoft may today receive approval from the European Union's antitrust regulator, removing the last remaining regulatory obstacle, the Financial Times said. SLM Corp., the student-loan company known as Sallie Mae, is being investigated by the state of California for non-federally backed loans to students to for-profit career training schools, the Financial Times reported. News Corp. shareholders approved Rupert Murdoch's plan to move his media company to the U.S. from Australia, making it easier to raise money for expansion and allowing the stock to be added to the benchmark S&P 500 Index, Bloomberg reported.
Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.25% to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.16%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.21%
BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. equities to open modestly lower in the morning on a weaker consumer confidence report. As I have said many times before, the constant barrage of negativity from the media and politicians is having an affect on consumer psychology. However, confidence should head higher in the intermediate-term as the election ends, domestic terrorism fears diminish and hiring improves. Stocks should attempt to rally later in the day on better earnings reports, declining energy prices, short-covering and bargain-hunting.
No comments:
Post a Comment