Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- YRC Worldwide(YRCW), the Overland Park, Kansas-based trucking company said second-quarter profit excluding some items will probably be 30 cents a share to 40 cents, matching its April forecast. The stock jumped 9.7% in after-hours trading.
- Panera Bread(PNRA) today announced that it is increasing its fiscal second quarter 2008 earnings per diluted share target to $.48 to $.50 from its previously announced target of $.40 to $.44 per diluted share. The increase is driven by projected company-owned comparable bakery-cafe sales growth of 6.1% to 6.4% (versus its previously targeted range of 5% to 6%), and better than expected margin improvement on higher growth in gross profit per transaction. The stock surged 7.6% in extended trading.
- Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group, says corn futures ‘close to a peak.’ (video)
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- Wyeth(WYE) and Elan Crop.(ELN) shares rose after the drugmaker’s experimental Alzheimer’s treatment helped improve brain functioning in patients with the degenerative brain disorder who were screened with a genetic test.
- Johnson&Johnson(JNJ) won a US panel’s unanimous backing to introduce a new drug for millions of adults with the skin disorder psoriasis.
- Osama bin Laden’s top aide, Ayman Zawahiri, is spearheading a public-relations effort to restore al-Qaeda’s credibility in the Muslim world as military pressure puts it on the defensive. “These are signs of weakness,” said Martha Crenshaw, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation in California. “Of course, sometimes a weak organization can be even more dangerous since it needs to lash out,” she said.
- NEC Electronics Corp., Japan’s third-largest chipmaker, climbed 9.7% to the highest in six months in Tokyo trading after Goldman Sachs(GS) raised its rating on the company to “buy.”
- New Zealand’s economy is weaker than forecast in last month’s budget as rising credit, fuel and food costs crimp consumer confidence and spending, Finance Minister Michael Cullen said.
Wall Street Journal:
- Wind power will be more easily shipped across NY’s electricity grid for real-time and next-day use under market rule changes approved by federal regulators Tuesday.
- LinkedIn Corp., a business-networking Web site, has received a $53 million infusion from blue-chip venture capitalists that values the company at $1 billion.
- Florida’s governor dropped his longstanding support for a federal ban on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas – a major shift that shows how voter anger over soaring gasoline prices is forcing politicians to rethink US energy policy.
MarketWatch.com:
- CFTC moves to close ‘London loophole’ The Commodities Futures Trading Commission moved Tuesday to make London traders of the benchmark U.S. oil contract meet the same position requirements as their U.S. counterparts, one of a series of actions the futures watchdog says it's taking to stamp out "excessive speculation" in the oil markets. In testimony before a Senate hearing on oil markets, CFTC Acting Chairman Walter Lukken said the regulator "was trying to address all points of entry for crude," including by addressing overseas trades of a contract such as WTI that settles on a CFTC-regulated exchange. "Our job is to ensure excessive speculation is not ... driving markets," Lukken said in the Washington, D.C. hearing, which was broadcast on the Internet. In addition, Lukken said Tuesday the regulator plans to give Congress a report by Sept. 15 detailing its findings on index trading. Critics say the CFTC's designation of index trading, or trades entered into by pension funds and others that are linked to a commodity index, understates the funds' presence. That's because these funds can increase their positions through swaps contracts with large investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.(GS) and Morgan Stanley(MS). The CFTC's most recent actions come as lawmakers prepare a slate of new bills that range from bolstering the CFTC's staffing and oversight to sharply curtailing the role of institutional investors in the commodities markets. The major banks and exchanges that handle the bulk of futures traders are trying to prevent Congress from taking some of the more extreme actions it's threatened.
- Crude oil futures closed lower Tuesday as concerns about the US economy dampened the outlook for oil demand and traders bet that Saudi Arabia and other oil exporters will soon agree to boost production. "With all the volatility the last week or two, I suspect the big risk takers are all that want to trade in this market," said Charles Perry, president of Perry Management, an energy-consulting firm. "In the back of everyone's mind is a possibility the crude [and other commodities] could crash if the traders rapidly moved out of commodities, and no one wants to be left holding the bag."
- Inflation not bad for stocks? Conventional wisdom about inflation and stocks is misleading.
- Get your sockets ready – plug-in electric cars are coming soon to a garage near you, according to car makers and power company officials who met in the nation’s capital last week to discuss the technology’s future.
- H&R Block(HRB) said late Tuesday its board approved a series of changes in the company's corporate governance policies, including giving shareholders a say in the company's compensation package.
- A bipartisan housing bill that aims to provide relief to homeowners facing foreclosures and contain problems in the housing market was announced on Tuesday, and the Senate is expected to begin debate on the proposal soon.
NY Times:
- New Jersey’s Office Developers See a Few Bright Spots. Some real estate professionals are sensing a possible resurgence for the office market in New Jersey.
- Investors Seek Asian Options to Costly China.
IBD:
- Cognex(CGNX): Electronic Eyes Guide Robotic Arms, Assembly Lines In Industry.
c/net:
- Tech giant Intel(INTC) joins IBM(IBM) and Applied(AMAT) in big solar bet.
Reuters:
- High energy prices upset balance in US West. With energy prices at record highs, some fear that interest in long-dormant rights to develop oil and gas resources underneath the land could badly upset the natural beauty and balance of the rugged American West.
- U.S. airlines projected on Tuesday they could lose $10 billion in 2008 due to skyrocketing fuel costs, a sum that would almost match the industry's worst-ever year loss in 2002.
- US provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq’s western Anbar province installed solar-powered purification units to provide potable water to local residents.
Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note
Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.25% to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 futures unch.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.08%.
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Upcoming Splits
- None of note
Economic Releases
10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory drawdown of -1,750,000 barrels versus a -4,560,000 barrel decline the prior week. Gasoline supplies are expected to rise by 850,000 barrels versus a 998,000 barrel build the prior week. Distillate inventories are estimated to rise by 1,800,000 barrels versus a 2,277,000 barrel increase the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to rise by .5% versus a 1.09% decline the prior week.
Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Yellen speaking, weekly MBA mortgage applications report, (PLXS) investor day, (GET) analyst day, (TLEO) analyst meeting, BIO International Convention, Deutsche Bank Consumer & Food Retail Conference, Merrill Lynch Transports Conference, CSFB Consumer Conference and William Blair Growth Stock Conference could also impact trading today.
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