iBankCoin
Home / 2011 / May (page 38)

Monthly Archives: May 2011

Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning

Upgrades

SYK – Stryker upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman

POT – Potash tgt raised to $70 from $66 at UBS

NTAP – NetApp upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital

N – NetSuite target raised to $40 from $35 at Feltl & Co.

ROVI – Rovi upgraded to Buy at Maxim Group

BSX – Boston Scientific: Elliott to retire; sell-off overdone – RBC

DNDN – Dendreon: Positive Provenge takeaways from prostate cancer symposium – Collins Stewart

MSFT – Microsoft: Oppenheimer discusses MSFT’s acquisition of Skype; believes the deal makes strategic sense longer term

NUAN – Nuance Communications target raised to $25 from $23 at Northland Securities

FOSL – Fossil: Hearing upgraded to Buy at Credit Agricole

TMO – Thermo Fisher target raised to $73 from $66 at Auriga U.S.A

JASO – JA Solar upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse

Downgrades

STEC – STEC Inc target lowered to $23 from $30 at Northland Securities – following weak Q2 guidance and EMC expectations reset

NRGY – Inergy downgraded to Market Perform from Strong Buy at Raymond James

KIM – Kimco Realty downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS

RIMM – Research In Motion downgraded to Hold from Buy at Societe Generale

Comments »

Gapping Up and Down This Morning

Gapping Up

ROVI +12.7%, IPSU +10.2%, URRE +3.4%, DEO +2%, BCS +2%, LYG +2%, SLV +1.9%, ARMH +1.9%, PSEC +1.7%, CGA +1.6%, RIO +1.2%, BHP+1%, STO +1%PEGA +8.8%, ASYS +7.7%, EXAM +7.2%, AGM +7.2%, PKT +6.9%, ZAGG +6.4%, CAST +5.8%,TYPE +5%, FEED +4%

Gapping Down

STEC -15.3%, ZUMZ -1.9%, STWD -3.3%, FNB -3%, MT -2.4%, DIS -2.1%, WAVX -5.8%, MCP -4.8%, GFRE -4.6%, AYR-3.4%,AIXG -1.7%, MALL -1.4%, NUAN -1%, ID -1% CPTS -12.5%, GSX -10%, ACAD -8.5%, MTSN -7.7%, HEV -6.5%,

Comments »

Macy’s Trades Higher in the Pre-Market as They Beat Expectations

Macy’s fiscal first-quarter earnings topped analysts’ estimates and the company raised its fiscal 2011 earnings forecast and its dividend.

Macy’s [M  26.33   0.15  (+0.57%)   ] said it earned $131 million, or 30 cents a share, in the latest period.

Analysts were expecting Macy’s to earn 18 cents a share.

Sales rose 5.7 percent to $5.89 billion from $5.57 billion  a year ago. On a same-store basis, Macy’s sales were up 5.4 percent.”

Full report

Comments »

U.S. Mortgage Applications Rise as Interest Rates Settle

“Applications for U.S. home mortgages surged last week at the fastest pace in two months as interest rates dropped for a fourth week in a row, an industry group said Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, jumped 8.2 percent in the week ended May 6.

“Rates dropped again last week as the Federal Reserve continued its asset purchase program,” Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research, said in a statement.”

Full article

Comments »

Jim Rogers: “I will be shorting U.S. bonds”

“Veteran investor Jim Rogers said on Wednesday he plans to short US bonds and sees more currency turmoil in the markets this fall.

“I will be shorting US bonds,” Rogers told a conference in Edinburgh. “I would probably be doing it today if I weren’t here,” he said.

Bonds in the US have been in a bull market for 30 years, Rogers said.

“In my view that’s coming to an end…the bond bulll market is coming to an end. If any of you have bonds I would urge you to go home and sell them. If any of you are bond portfolio managers I would get another job,” he said.”

Full article

Comments »

Asian Markets Rise on Good Earnings

“Asian stocks rose, with a regional benchmark index climbing for a third straight day, after oil and metal prices advanced yesterday. Japanese shares gained as companies reported improving earnings and a weaker yen boosted exporters’ prospects.

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, increased 1.7 percent in Sydney. S-Oil Corp. (010950) gained 2.5 percent, leading South Korean oil refiners higher in Seoulafter gasoline prices rose in New York. Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd., Japan’s second-largest tiremaker, jumped 4.9 percent in Tokyo after boosting its profit forecast. Toyota Motor Corp. and rival Honda Motor Co. advanced as the weaker yen bolstered their earnings outlook.”

Full article

Comments »

European Markets Climb Marginally

“European stocks gained, with the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbing 0.3 percent to 283.70 as of 9:04 a.m. in London. Bourbon SA posted the biggest advance after reporting a 24 percent increase in first-quarter revenue.”

Full article

Comments »

German Inflation Data Comes in Hotter Than Expected

“Inflation in GermanyEurope’s largest economy, accelerated more than initially estimated in April after energy costs surged.

The inflation rate, calculated using a harmonized European Union method, jumped to 2.7 percent from 2.3 percent in March, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. That’s an upward revision from the first estimate of 2.6 percent on April 27. From March, consumer prices rose 0.3 percent, more than the 0.2 percent initially reported.”

Full article

Comments »

The Bounce in Crude Oil Takes a Pause On China Inflation Outlook

“Oil snapped a two-day surge in New York on concerns that China will boost interest rates to tame inflation and on signs that U.S. crude supplies are increasing.

Gasoline dropped as much as 1.9 percent on speculation that a 9 percent rally in the past two days was excessive. The fuel had advanced on concern that flooding on the Mississippi River will disrupt U.S. supplies. Yesterday the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said crude inventories jumped last week. The Energy Department will release its data today. Consumer price rises in China exceeded the government’s target last month, data from the statistics bureau in Beijing showed.”

Full article

Comments »

World Trade and The Global Economy Considered Healthy Looking at Suez Canal Traffic

“Cargo carried through the Suez Canal rose 4.1 percent to an eight-month high in April, signaling no weakness in world trade and the third-highest profit ever for A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the biggest container-shipping line.

The Egyptian waterway carries about 8 percent of global goods and handled almost 57.8 million metric tons last month, compared with 55.6 million tons in March, data from the Suez Canal Authority show. Rising European demand for Asian products is shoring up container rates threatened by what Clarkson Plc, the biggest shipbroker, estimates will be a 6.8 percent expansion in the fleet’s capacity this year.”

Full article

Comments »

Rethinking Jobless Recovery, Corporate Tax Breaks, and Offshoring

“Does growth lead to jobs? Economists have long thought so. But thanks to tectonic shifts in the nature of the U.S. economic landscape, the direct relationship may be weakening. And that could have big implications for how we define a healthy economy.

That growth and job creation go hand in hand is a basic assumption of our economic conversation—so uncontroversial that it needs little explaining.

Here’s how deeply ingrained the link is: In February, Mark Zandi, the respected chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, concluded in a study that the Republican proposal to cut $60 billion in spending would cost the economy half a percentage point of growth this year, or 400,000 jobs. The GOP disputed the finding that growth would suffer. But no one questioned the connection between growth and jobs, which was based on a standard formula similar to that frequently applied by economists of all stripes.

But consider this: Between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of last year, the U.S. economylost almost 8 million jobs, an enormous figure by historic standards. Yet during that same period, economic activity declined by only 1.3 percent, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research—a far less dramatic dropoff than the huge number of jobs lost would predict using conventional models. By the same token, the latter half of last year saw solid economic growth, including record corporate profits, but weak job creation, with unemployment stuck around 9 percent. That was the “jobless recovery” we heard so much about……..”

Full article

Comments »

Android Software Opens Up to Music and Movie Rental Libraries

Google Inc. (GOOG), the world’s largest Internet-search company, is making a bigger push into entertainment services, adding music storage and movie-rental features to its Android software for phones and tablets.

The new Music Beta service, announced today at the company’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco, will store song libraries and playlists, and will suggest music based on listeners’ collections. Movies will be available for rent through the Android Market, and can be streamed to personal computers, tablet devices and handsets, the company said.”

Full article

Comments »

Goldman Discloses CFTC Probe and Faces Possible Civil Fraud Charges

“By LIZ MOYER

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s clearing and execution division faces civil fraud and other charges by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is probing its role as a clearing broker for an unnamed registered broker-dealer.

In its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, Goldman said that the agency’s staff has orally advised it that it intends to recommend the agency bring “aiding and abetting, civil fraud and supervision-related charges” against Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing.

The CFTC, the filing said, is basing these charges on allegations Goldman knew, or should have known, that its broker-dealer client’s subaccounts at Goldman were accounts belonging to customers of the broker-dealer and not the broker-dealer’s own accounts.”

Full article

Comments »

Treasury Bargains for Government Business, Mutual Fund Sales, and Auto Insurance Sales With China

No mention about debt support or currency pegs….

(Reuters) – China on Tuesday pledged to make it easier for U.S. companies to win Chinese government contracts, addressing a long-standing complaint of foreign corporations seeking a piece of the fast-growing market.

The pledge was made in two days of talks between the world’s two biggest economies which ended with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hailing progress in the often tense relationship between Washington and Beijing.

“We are seeing very promising shifts in the direction of Chinese economic policy,” Geithner said.”

Full article

Comments »