Archive for the ‘Bad News’ Category

Market lower on weak new home sales

Posted by Michael on October 28th, 2009

tradersThe markets are trading in the red today, being pulled down by investor concern over the most recent data regarding the housing market.

According to the Commerce Department this morning, September sales of new homes dropped by 3.6%. September’s annual rate was 402,000 units, which was below the expected 440,000 annual units.

The average price for a new home was also lower, falling 9.1 percent on a year-over-year basis to $204,800. On the bright side, that is up 2.5 percent from August.

The housing market has been rebounding a bit lately, but things could turn around quickly should the current $8,000 tax incentive expire at the end of next month. It has been given credit for helping boost sales, but analysts are worried what will happen if Congress does not extend the program.

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General Electric and Bank of America pull down the market

Posted by Michael on October 16th, 2009

bearThe market closed in the red today, as poor earnings from General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) brought out the bears.

The DOW closed the session down 0.67%, the NASDAQ ended the day down 0.76%, while the S&P slipped by 0.8%.

General Electric started off the day off on a bad note when the company reported revenues that came up short of analyst estimates. GE was able to outpace analyst estimates for its earnings in the third quarter by posting 23 cents per share verse analyst estimates of 20 cents per share, but that was not enough to outweigh its missed revenues. The company reported $37.8 billion in revenues verse analyst estimates for $40.3 billion. Shares of GE closed the day down 4.2% to $16.08, down $0.71 on the day and wiping out $7.5 billion in market capitalization.

Bank of America was expected to show a loss for its third quarter of 21 cents per share, but the actual numbers came in worse than expected with a 26 cent loss in the quarter. The stock was hit hard today following the report, with shares falling 4.6% to $17.26, down $0.84 on the day.

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New 52 Week Highs:

There were several big name stocks that were able to set new 52 week highs today, despite the down market and include the following; Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), and Mattel (NYSE: MAT).

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Analyst upgrades and downgrades:

Stocks upgraded today include:

  • Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) upgraded by Caris to Buy from Above Average with $27 price target
  • Safeway (NYSE: SWY) upgraded by Kevin Dann to Buy from Neutral and boosted its price target on the stock to $27 from $19 per share.
  • Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) received an upgrade today by Benchmark Co. to a Buy from Hold, while lifting its price target on the stock to $625 from $500.

Stocks downgraded today include:

  • Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) downgraded by Caris to Above Average from Buy with a $56 price target on the stock.
  • Nokia (NYSE: NOK) downgraded by Gabelli to Hold from Buy.

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Stock upgrades and downgrades: DKS, STT, JPM, SLB, BTU, APC, BHI, BJS

Posted by Michael on October 15th, 2009

A lot of big name stocks received upgrades and downgrades today. Here are a few such stocks:

Analyst upgrades:

  • Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) was upgraded today to Neutral from Underperform by Buckingham.
  • State Street Corp (NYSE: STT) was upgraded by CLSA to Outperform from Underperform and the broker lifted its price target on the stock to $62 from $45.
  • JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) received an upgrade today from Fox-Pitt to Outperform from In Line with a $55 price target.
  • Schlumberger (NYSE SLB) was upgraded by Citigroup today to Buy from Hold and the broker boosted its price target on the stock to $80 from $56.

Analyst downgrades:

  • Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) was downgraded by Davenport from a Buy to Neutral
  • Andarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) downgraded by JP Morgan to Neutral from Overweight
  • Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) was lowered today by Citigroup to a Sell from Hold and the broker left its price target on the stock steady at $39.
  • BJ Services (NYSE: BJS) downgraded by Citigroup to Sell from Hold and the broker lowered its price target on the stock to $14 from $16.

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Unemployment hits 9.8%

Posted by Michael on October 2nd, 2009

The Labor Department released September unemployment figures today, and as expected unemployment was up once again in the month.

The currently unemployment level is now running at 9.8%, highest since June 1983.

With an additional 263,000 additional job losses during the month, the total number of Americans out of work now sits at 15.1 million, and gives further evidence that the recession continues to inflict pain.

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Another down day for the market

Posted by Michael on February 25th, 2009

After yesterday’s rally, and President Obama’s speech last night, it would have been nice to see another strong day for the market, but that was not the case as sellers came back in and sent all the major markets lower in today’s trading.

As we know, the housing market has been a major drain on the overall economy, and the real estate market got some more bad news today as we learned that January existing home sales dropped by more than expected.

Several big names hit new fresh 52 week lows today:

  • Pfizer (PFE)
  • Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
  • Nokia (NOK)
  • Caterpillar (CAT)
  • Boeing (BA)

We will see if the markets are able to pick up some steam tomorrow, but for now it looks like pessimism is still running wild on Wall Street

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Market Update – Markets close the week on a sour note

Posted by Michael on February 13th, 2009

Friday was another sell off for the market, as investors continue to show fear ahead of a plan out of Washington on how to reverse the current recession that seems to be deepening with each passing day.

The DOW was down 1.04% today, the NASDAQ traded 0.5% lower, and the S&P dropped another 1.0% in today’s trading.

For the week, the DOW dropped a total of 5.2%, and is sitting at lows that we have not seen since back in November when fear was running rapid among traders regarding the future of the economy.

One thing that is keeping traders in a selling mode is the waiting game to see what version of the current stimulus package actually gets approved. In today’s news, the House of Representatives passed their version on the stimulus package, a $787 billion plan to boost the economy. The next step is to get the bill pass the Senate, which is expected to cast its vote later today.

President Obama was optimistic that the bill had made it through the House, and now awaits to see if the Senate will send him the bill for his approval next week.

In other news today, two of the big banks, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup announced that they were enacting a moratorium on new foreclosures until they see what sort of plan Obama announces to help ease the huge increases in foreclosures that are hitting the market. Both banks have suspended new foreclosures until the first part of March in hopes of easing the pain that many homeowners are currently dealing with.

The markets will be closed on Monday, so we will have to wait until Tuesday to see if the market can make up some of its recent losses.

Enjoy your Valentines Day, and your long 3 day weekend.

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Posted in After the Bell, Bad News, Congress, Economy, Foreclosures, Housing, Market Updates, Politics, Recession Tags: , , , , , , , No Comments »

Premarket look: Market poised for another sell off

Posted by Michael on October 6th, 2008

Another tough day ahead of us on Wall Street, as international markets have sold off about 4% today on widening fears over the slowing global economy.

Look for another sell off on Wall Street, as futures are indicating a very sharp drop at the open. After the volatile week last week, many of us had some hopes that the Bush approved $700 billion bailout plan that was passed late on Friday would help spark a slight bounce, but that is not to be the case, and stocks are set for a much lower open to get the week started.

There is going to be a lot of pain out there today.

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Posted in Bad News, Before the Bell, Congress, Consumer Experience, Economy, George Bush, Major Moves, Market Updates, Politics, Recession No Comments »

Wall Street heads for lower open on bailout possibility

Posted by Michael on September 29th, 2008

Looks like another tough start to the week for Wall Street, as traders express their disappointment in the proposed bailout plan that looks likely to pass Congress the week.

The Bush administration is pushing hard for its $700 billion bailout, but Wall Street doesn’t believe that the Bush plan is going to be enough to help bailout the struggling economy, and futures are trading sharply lower this morning now that it appears that plan is going to pass Congress later this week.

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Exxon Mobil (XOM) posts another record earnings period, but fails to match Wall Street estimates

Posted by Michael on July 31st, 2008

With the way oil prices have been moving this year, it is not too surprising that oil giant Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was able to show yet another record setting quarterly profit this morning. However, despite the record setting quarter, the company still failed to meet analyst expectations.

Let’s take a look at the numbers; For the quarter, Exxon posted $2.22 per share on profits of $11.68 billion and a stunning $138 in revenue. If you want to look at it in a different way, that means that the company made profits of $1,485.55 every single second of the quarter.

Sounds great, but analysts were disappointed and were expecting to see the company come in much higher, with EPS of $2.47, and revenues of $144.4 billion.

As a result the stock is dropping today, as traders have looked past the record setting numbers, and driven shares of the company down by about 3.5% after an hours trading this morning.

The main culprit was, believe it or not, the high oil prices. For Exxon, since the company both produces it own oil, and refines it into gasoline, the record high prices that oil has reached lately have put a crimp in the company’s gasoline profit margins. Since Exxon actually buys more oil than it sells, the rising oil prices hit the company’s refining margins, since oil prices were about twice what they were during the same period last year, with gasoline prices “only” rising about 30%.

So, the boys over at Exxon can enjoy sitting back and enjoying the title of the biggest quarterly profit by a U.S. company once again, but if they want to keep a smile on their faces, they are going to have to continue to look for ways to overcome the profit margins in their refining business moving forward.

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Both oil and gas prices setting new highs today

Posted by Michael on June 30th, 2008

Energy prices just keep on heading higher, and today we see new highs for both oil and gas.

Oil crept through the $143 mark today, a traders continue to see oil as their refuge from a weak overall global economy. As recession fears continue to weigh on the minds of traders, they are flocking into commodities as a hedge against a possible full blown recession.  Supply concerns are also present today, and, as usual, we have some tension in the Middle East the continues to weigh on investor’s minds.

So how about those gasoline prices? Last month, I moved back to America after spending a couple years in Europe, and the harsh reality of gasoline prices is now something I am being forced to experience first hand. So long public transportation, and hello $4 gasoline. It’s tough, but its just something that is hard to avoid living in America. But just how bad are things? Overnight the national average creeped a little bit higher, and set a new record up at $4.086. Ouch.

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Posted in Bad News, Consumer Experience, New Highs, Oil 1 Comment »
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