UBS initiated Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) and Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC) with Buy ratings and an $11 target and $62 target, respectively. The firm views valuation as attractive.
5 Foreign Stocks to Love Concerned about your domestic investments in today's troubled economy? Consider these international companies, which can be easily purchased right here in the U.S. They include Finland's Nokia, China's CNOOC, Brazil's Embraer, U.K's InterContinental Hotels Group and Ireland's Allied Irish Banks. 5 foreign stocks we love - How we chose the stocks (1) - CNNMoney.com
Highest Paid CEOs Stocks may have fallen in 2007, but executive pay sure didn't. And if the multi-million dollar paydays for CEOs doesn't raise eyebrows, the 'perks' that go along with the money certainly will. These include corporate jets, special security, private cars with drivers to country club dues and vacations. Among the top paid CEOS including base pay, perks and other compensation are Merrill Lynch's new CEO John Thain, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein and American Express' Kenneth Chenault who each made over $50 million last year. List: Highest Paid CEOs Stocks may fall, but execs' pay doesn't - USATODAY.com CEO perks often include use of company jet, security - USATODAY.com
Retirees Turn to Communes With living costs spiraling upward and empty-nesters feeling a need for a greater sense of community in their lives, some baby boomers are reconsidering the concept of group living. This time around, the idea holds appeal as a cost-efficient, socially engaging way to spend their golden years. Baby boomers go back to the commune -Bankrate
12 Tips for Midnight Tax Filers These tips will help ensure that you get your return into Uncle Sam's hands on time while mailing at the last possible moment. Many happy, but last-minute, returns
Stocks started out in slightly positive territory on what appeared to be more good news out of a major institution. Then oil inventories showed an unexpected decline, sending oil up up over $2.00 per barrel to $110.56 and later even above $112. Throw in a couple of weak earnings reports and the fears that earnings season is going to be tough, and the bears got to rule today.
Below are today's unofficial closing levels for major US index levels:
Dow: 12,328.49, down 0.38%; Nasdaq 2,322.12, down 1.13%; S&P 1354.56, down 0.8%
Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) saw a sharp drop today, and that was before the earnings news was out after the close. A Piper Jaffray downgrade led to the sharp drop today.
Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) proved to be a typical example of what is becoming redundant. The company lined up a sale of $12 billion of dollars worth of leveraged loans for some 90 cents on the dollar.
Bernstein downgraded Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) to "market perform" from "outperform" according toBriefing.com. The news service also reports that Citigroup initiated Southern Cooper (NYSE: PCU) with a "sell".
Banc of America Securities said that Allstate (NYSE: ALL) may miss first quarter earnings due to payments for storm damages according to the AP.
Stock futures were lower this morning, indicating the beginning of what could be another down day on Wall Street as more troubling news from the financial industry was reported, while UPS warned of a slowdown in its delivery business.
On Tuesday, U.S. stocks ended lower following a revenue warning from Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), a lackluster earnings report from Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), a dividend cut from Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) and the Federal Reserve minutes, all of which affecting investors' sentiment. The Dow industrials closed 35 points lower, or 0.29%, the S&P 500 lost 7 points, or 0.51%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 16 points, or 0.68%.
This morning, given the very light economic calendar consisting of February wholesale inventories at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Street will likely focus -- once again -- on the troubles in financials. The top story on the Wall Street Journal is about the options the Fed is considering to alleviate the credit crunch further including "contingency plans for expanding its lending power in the event its recent steps to unfreeze credit markets fail." While such plans aren't surprising and even welcome, the report comes after the Fed showed concern the economic downturn could last into 2009 when it released Tuesday the minutes of its FOMC meeting.
BBBY call option volume of 2,511 contracts compares to put volume of 17,758 contracts. BBBY April option implied volatility is at 64, May is at 53, above its 26-week average of 40 according to Track Data, suggesting hedging for downside price movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.
Consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) and leading domestics retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NYSE: BBBY) are scheduled to report earnings tomorrow. Here's a quick peek ahead of results.
Circuit City has fallen short of earnings estimates in the past five quarters. When the Richmond, Virginia-based company reported fourth-quarter results back in November, its loss of 64 cents per share was deeper than the 31 cents per share loss forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Financial, as well as the nine cents per share loss in the same period of 2006. For the current quarter, analysts expect the loss to narrow to six cents per share, compared to a profit of 61 cents in the year-ago quarter.
The company's earnings per share growth forecast for this year is a dismal -92.7%, worse than the industry average, as well as the 2.45% of rival Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY). So it's little surprise that the analysts' consensus recommendation is to hold Circuit City, and has been for at least three months. Shares are trading much closer to the 52-week low of $3.44 from mid March than the 52-week high of $19.12 from almost a year ago. The share price closed Monday at $4.76, and fell to about $4.62 in early trading Tuesday.
For more about pressure to oust the CEO, to drop Circuit City from the S&P 500, or other news that could influence earnings results, see BloggingStocks' Circuit City coverage.
PDUFA date for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY)'s supplemental Biologics License Application for Orencia for the treatment of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm.
Tuesday, April 8
Chattem Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
FOMC to release minutes of the March 18th meeting at 2:00pm.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Bed Bath & Beyond, DSW Inc and Oplink Comm were today's noteworthy downgrades:
JP Morgan downgraded Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) to Underweight from Neutral citing recent sales commentary from competitors and the difficult macro environment.
Oppenheimer cut DSW Inc (NYSE: DSW) to Perform from Outperform following the company's Q1 miss and lower than expected guidance, as they see little visibility in the coming quarters.
Piper downgraded shares of Oplink Communications (NASDAQ: OPLK) to Sell from Neutral following the company's negative earnings preannouncement and lowered their target to $9.00 from $14.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Tiffany (NYSE: TIF) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Merrill.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Sigma Designs, Sky West and UBS AG were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM) was lowered to Neutral from Outperform at Baird citing checks that indicate a more muted revenue outlook in 1H08 vs. 2H07.
Soleil downgraded shares of Sky West (NASDAQ: SKYW) to Hold from Buy to reflect the high-fuel-price environment and headwinds from the legacy carrier consolidation.
Bear Stearns downgraded UBS (NYSE: UBS) to Peer Perform from Outperform on concerns of further subprime write-downs.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Dresdner Kleinwort downgraded Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) to Hold from Buy.
Morgan Joseph lowered Superior Essex (NASDAQ: SPSX) to Hold from Buy.
Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Intellon, Memsic and MGM Mirage were today's noteworthy initiations:
Jefferies believes Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN) is well-positioned to benefit from increasing IPTV rollouts in Europe and Asia, as well as from additional consumer applications in the digital home. The firm assumed shares with a Buy rating and $9 target.
Jefferies also initiated coverage of Memsic (NASDAQ: MEMS) with a Buy rating and $10 target, as they view the company as a compelling investment for investors seeking exposure to high-quality semiconductor companies benefiting from lower-cost China manufacturing.
Banc of America initiated MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) with a Neutral rating and $76 target, as they are cautious on Las Vegas in 2008 due to decelerating U.S. gaming revenue growth and increasing Strip room supply growth between 2008-2010.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Thomas Weisel initiated Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) with a Market Weight rating.
Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) and News Corp (NYSE: NWS) were started with Equal Weight ratings at Morgan Stanley.
Merrill initiated Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) with a Buy rating and $430 target.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has started off as much as 464 points at the open but has been rebounding since. Even at the time that I've been writing this post, the Dow narrowed its decline from about 200 points to almost 100 points. When investors have been fearing since yesterday a 500 point free-fall, they collectively sigh at a 200 point drop.
Naturally, the Federal Reserve's rate cut of 75 basis points helped cushion the blow. Futures have indeed started rebounding immediately after the announcement. But what's interesting is the reaction this move caused. Financials, home builders and retailers are rebounding, with some financials and retailers being among today's best performers. Some financials like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) are up over 3% and 3.6% respectively.
So you might say, financials I can understand. They've written down losses, their shares have declined markedly and with today's Fed cut, that could mean they've bottomed. But retailers? Hasn't everybody been talking about the consumers not having money and cutting spending? Especially come time of reset on their mortgages?
Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) reported a fourth quarter $1.87 billion loss, hurt badly by the sinking value of its mortgage portfolio. The quarterly loss was $2.19 per share, compared with a profit of $1.06 billion, or $1.10 per share in the same period last year. WaMu shares are up 2.3% in premarket trading.
Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) said Friday profit rose 22% in the fourth quarter due to strong demand for oilfield services. The results were below Wall Street estimates and the shares are down over 3% in premarket trading. Earnings rose to $1.38 billion in the fourth quarter, or $1.12 per share, on revenue of $6.25 billion. Excluding a gain, the company's earnings rose to $1.37 billion, or $1.11 a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected fourth-quarter earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $6.14 billion.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that next to the consumer, this is the biggest problem facing the otherwise strong companies in this sector.
Doesn't it seem like another day where it is impossible to make money? We have earnings season without any sense that anybody's numbers can be raised. We have an ennui that comes from months of pounding and indecision, and we have stocks that can't seem to go up to save their lives.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) are shooting up over 9.5% in premarket trading after the company reported strong preliminary results, taking a few other tech stocks higher with it. Big Blue said fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations rose 24% from a year ago to $2.80 per share on revenue of $28.9 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of $2.60 per share on sales of $27.82 billion by a wide margin. The weaker dollar, IBM reported, helped to push revenue up 10%.
With the start on Macworld tomorrow, January 15, it seems there is no shortage of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) news:
Apple and China Mobile have called off talks to launch the iPhone in China. The talks have so far fueled speculation the device will hit the country's store shelves soon.
As for the iPhone being used as a web browser, reports have indeed showed increased traffic to search engines from the iPhone, surpassing others, despite it holding only a 2% share of smartphones. On Christmas, traffic to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) from iPhones surged, surpassing incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device (it later fell below Nokia-backed Symbian operating system phones). Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) also said "iPhones accounted for a disproportionate amount of its mobile traffic."
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: The U.S. Retail Hardlines Sector, the BioFuels Sector, Interpublic Group and Omnicom Group were today's noteworthy initiations:
Stock futures were lower this morning, indicating the beginning of what could be another down day on Wall Street as more troubling news from the financial industry was reported, while UPS warned of a slowdown in its delivery business.
Bed Bath & Beyond
Circuit City has 
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Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: 
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that next to the consumer, this is the biggest problem facing the otherwise strong companies in this sector.
Just how high will U.S. gasoline prices rise?
Nordstrom and Kohl's post smaller-than-expected Q1 profit declines
Oil hits record $127.43 on supply concerns, raised Goldman forecast
