Archive for the ‘Before the Bell’ Category

Retail Earnings Previews: Gamestop (GME), Sears Holding (SHLD) and Gap (GPS)

Posted by Michael on November 18th, 2009

wall-streetWe have three big name stocks due to report earnings tomorrow. Here is a quick glance at what Wall Street is expecting to see.

1. Gamestop (NYSE: GME): The video game retailer is due to report its third quarter numbers tomorrow morning before the opening bell. Analysts are expecting the company to show earnings of 30 cents per share. For the same period last year, the company had earnings of 34 cents per share. The stock is trading up 0.6% on the day.

2. Sears Holding (NASDAQ: SHLD): The retailer is going to be reporting its third quarter numbers tomorrow, and analysts are expecting to see a loss of $1.09. For the same period last year the company had a loss of 90 cents a share. The stock is trading down 1.2% on the day. The company will be reporting its numbers before the market opens.

3. Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS): The clothing retailer is going to be reporting its third quarter results tomorrow, and Wall Street is looking to see the company show 44 cents per share. For the same period last year the Gap had earnings of 35 cents per share. The stock is trading down 0.8% in today’s market.

A big day for retailers, and will give us a better view of just how strong the current recovery actually is.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Posted in After the Bell, Before the Bell, Earnings, Forecasts, Retailers Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Premarket look: Market poised for lower start to kick off February

Posted by Michael on February 2nd, 2009

Taking a look at futures trading this morning indicates that the market is going to get off to a tough start for the trading day of February.

Investors continue to express concern that the stimulus package that was recently passed in the House is not going to get passed when the Senate gets its chance to vote on the new plan. There is still a good deal of concern over what the new package is going to do to address the ailing bank industry.

Consumer spending fell again in December, as the Commerce Department announces that personal spending in December fell by another 1%, as incomes dropped by 0.2% in the month as layoffs continue to mount. Analysts had been expecting to see consumer spending off by 0.9% in the month.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Posted in Before the Bell, Congress, Consumer Experience, Economy, Market Updates Tags: , , , , No Comments »

Federal Reserve lowers key interest rate

Posted by Michael on October 8th, 2008

With the way the market has been moving violently lower the past couple of week, the Federal Reserve announced today it was lowering its key federal funds rate by half of a percentage point, down to 1.5%. It lowered the discount rate by the same amount, down to 1.75%.

The Fed stated that economic growth had slowed “markedly in recent months,” and that the cut was necessary.

Futures are trading higher this morning, and it looks like we should break the five day losing streak on Wall Street, and get some much needed bounces in some pretty beaten up stocks today.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted in Before the Bell, Economy, Federal Reserve, Forecasts, Interest Rates, Recession 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.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 4% [?]

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

Market should open higher after yesterday’s sell off

Posted by Michael on September 30th, 2008

Yesterday was brutal on the stock market, with the largest one day drop in history, as the DOW fell 777 points, a decline of nearly 7. The Nasdaq dropped by even more on a percentage basis, with a decline of 9.14%, and the S&P gave back 8.8% yesterday.

Futures are trading higher today, but it is going to take a lot more than one day of upside to make up what we lost yesterday.

Yesterday started off slowly as investors were skeptical that the proposed Bush bailout plan was going to be enough to save the troubled economy, but that fear turned to panic once the market realized that the plan was not going to go through all at yesterday afternoon.

Lawmakers are going to be on holiday until Thursday to observe the Jewish holidays, but there should still be some action taking place behind closed doors aimed at ironing out a new deal that will satisfy both Congress and Wall Street. We will see if / when that is able to take place.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Posted in Before the Bell, Congress, Economy, George Bush, Major Moves, Market Updates, 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.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Posted in Bad News, Before the Bell, Congress, Economy, George Bush, Recession No Comments »

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.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Posted in Bad News, Before the Bell, Competite Strategy, Earnings, Oil No Comments »

Citigroup gets much needed boost following second quarter earnings

Posted by Michael on July 18th, 2008

It is fair to say that Citigroup (NYSE: C), the worlds largest bank has been in trouble lately. It’s stock has been in a downwards trend for the past 12 months, but the stock is getting a nice little boost in the premarket today, following better than expected Q2 earnings numbers.

At first glance it looks like a horrible quarter for the company, with a reported $2.5 Billion loss for the three months ended June 30, but you have to consider how the quarter performed compared to what Wall Street analysts had been expecting to see. On a per share basis, today’s loss represents a 54 cent loss, but analysts had been expecting to see the company show a loss of 66 cents a share in the quarter. To get a better idea of just how tough things are compared to last year, consider that for its second quarter 2007, Citigroup showed earnings of $6.23 billion, or $1.24 per share.

Following today’s second quarter earnings numbers, Citigroup has traded up about 8% in premarket action.

There has been much speculation over the banking industry, mainly due to the credit crunch that the country is going through, but with Citigroup’s better than expected numbers, coupled with better than expected numbers earlier this week from JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and  Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Wall Street is going to have to decide if things are really as bad as some people have been predicting. On the other side of the coin, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) posted a larger than expected loss last night, so we are definitely getting some mixed signals from the industry.

So, we are still in very volatile and uncertain waters, but at least for today, Citigroup investors will have something to smile about. How long that will last is anyone’s guess at this point.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Posted in Before the Bell, Earnings, Financials, Good News No Comments »

Premarket look : Market poised for a strong start to the day

Posted by Michael on May 30th, 2008

Futures are trading above fair values this morning as Wall Street prepares for a strong start to the day.

There are two main factors at work today, strong earnings from computer giant Dell Computer (NASDAQ: DELL), and positive economic data on consumer spending that came out this morning.

DELL reported its first quarter numbers last night, and easily beat analyst estimates for the quarter, showing earnings of 38 cents per share, which was well above the 34 cents a share that analysts had been expecting to see. The company noted strong growth in both its consumer and commercial business lines as being key components to its strong quarter.

Also giving the market a boost this morning was the release of April consumer spending figures which showed a 0.2% rise in the month of April. This was in-line with what Wall Street was hoping to see, and a sign that the current economic slowdown and record high gasoline prices has not kept Americans from spending.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted in Before the Bell, Consumer Experience, Economy, Forecasts, Good News, Market Updates, Technology No Comments »

Home Depot (HD) feels the earnings season pain

Posted by Michael on May 20th, 2008

Shares of Home Depot (NYSE: HD) are getting nailed this morning following a weak first quarter earnings report from the home improvement retailer.

Going into this morning’s earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see the Atlanta based retailer to post earnings of 37 cents per share, but the company disappointed those expectations, with actual earnings of only 21 cents a share, on net income of $356 million. Sales dropped 3.4% in the quarter, mostly a result of a 6.5% drop in same store sales.

The main culprit being the weak housing market and rising gasoline costs that resulted in a 66% decline in profit for the company compared to the same period last year.

Frank Blake, chairman and CEO of Home Depot, stated that “housing and home improvement markets remained difficult in the first quarter… conditions worsened in many areas of the country.”

Shares of the stock are trading down by 2.8% in premarket trading, down $0.83 from yesterday’s close of $28.87.

You can read more from Michael on AOL’s Bloggingstocks

If you enjoyed this post, get all our posts with our Email Feed!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Posted in Bad News, Before the Bell, Earnings, Housing No Comments »
« Older Entries