Altria reported $0.59 per share vs consensus of $0.57

Full report

Revenues rose 8%,  but net income is falling.

Full report

This is the second blacklist after $XOM.

Full article

“As Amazon gears up for its quarterly earnings later this week, the company today has announced an expansion that points to its big ambitions in digital media, and an increasing focus on how that growth will come from outside the U.S.. Amazon is opening a new R&D hub in London focused on developing services and APIs for TVs, games consoles, smartphones and PCs, with the aim to roll those out across the company’s global footprint. That is a major development for a company that has been somewhat slow to roll out its newest services beyond its U.S.-homebase.”

Full article

“Hasbro Inc.’s HAS +3.31% second-quarter profit fell 25% as sales slid across nearly all major segments, with the boys business suffering the most as demand for toys tied to Marvel films couldn’t match a strong performance led by “Transformers” and “Beyblade” last year.”

Full report

Gapping up 

NXY +52.4%, PHG +6.3%, TLB +2.3%, CHK +2%, DGIT +0.9%,

KBH +3%,  LMNX +2.7% ,

Gapping down

PSTI -8%, TEF -6.6%, DB -6.2%, E -5%, BBL -3.7%, RIO -3.4%, TTM -3.2%,

BP -3%, BHP -2.9%, MT -2.9%, CS -2.8%, BAC -2.5%, SDRL -2.2%, TOT -2%,

RDS.A -1.9%, GDX -1.7%, GSK -1.6%, GOLD -1.4%, SLV -1.1%, JPM -1%, GLD -0.8%,

the world

Forex problems helped McDonald’s miss earnings for the first time since 2005.

Full report 

Estimate for blue-chips are being revised lower leading some to suspect that the world’s largest economy is headed for another recession.

The reduction in growth expectations for leading blue-chips to their lowest level since late 2008 and early 2009 comes as investors have been piling into stocks in dividend-paying large companies that are seen as havens against the backdrop of the eurozone crisis and a weakening US outlook.

Read the rest here.

Not likely to save the planet, but perhaps they could ease the burden of plastic garbage everywhere.

The funny thing is companies like SodaStream have been around for 30 years or more. I remember as a child making my own soda with relatives across Europe. They had always praised the fact that it eased the burden of waste. They also recycled back then. You have to wonder who pushed the throw away society idea. Fucking DUMB ASSES!

At any rate, SodaStream has a vision to dispose of unwanted plastic littering up the beauty of this planet. Let’s hope they succeed.

Full article

Dimon scooped up $17 million of common shares while selling $13.5 million of preferred shares recently.

Dimon and a LLC linked to him took advantage of a 24% drop in the stock after a huge derivative loss was announced last month.

Full article

“Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ), the second- biggest U.S. stock exchange owner, revamped its proposal to compensate brokers that lost money in the public debut of Facebook Inc. (FB), boosting the payout to $62 million cash.

The amendment, which follows criticism from Wall Street market makers and exchanges about the original plan, increases the compensation pool from $40 million and does away with a proposal to credit most of the money through reduced trading costs, according to a submission with Securities and Exchange Commission. Member brokers who accommodated customers will get paid first, it said.”

Full article

“Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup Inc. (C) are among Wall Street firms preparing to eliminate jobs as first-half revenue dropped for a third straight year.

Headcount at Morgan Stanley will decline by about 700 in the second half, bringing total 2012 staff reductions to 4,000, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, 54, said yesterday in an interview.Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Europe’s biggest lender by assets, is considering about 1,000 job cuts at its investment bank, while Citigroup plans to chop about 350, people with knowledge of the decisions said this week.”

Full article

Gapping up 

PXLW +32.4%, SXC +8.5%, SNDK +7.2%, SWFT +3.6%, ACTG +2.9%, DEO +2.7%,

GOOG +2.7%, GFI +2.1%, MSFT +1.8%, CBST +1.4%, ONXX +2.9% ,  NE +0.5%,

EDU +4.9%, ARNA +2.4%, DEO +0.5%,  FSBI +39.3%,

Gapping Down 

CPHD -20.2%, FSL -11.9%, RMBS -9.6%, LNET -8.2%, GORO -8%, CMG -6.7%,

ISRG -4.3%, UFPI -3.3%, AMD -3.3%, ALGN -3%, VOD -2.9%, TEF -2.3%,

PNRA -1.9%, SAN -1.8%, DB -1.8%, NOK -3.8%,  FRO -2%, VZ -0.6%,  UNP -1%

“In a new note to clients, Credit Suisse’s equity research team compiled a list of the top stock picks from the firm’s 50+ equity analysts.

This generated 151 stocks offering significant value.

We flipped through the list and pulled the stocks offering returns of 50 percent or more.

There were 27 such stocks, and they cover a wide range of industries and offer returns of up to 221 percent.”

Full article

“NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp reported its first quarterly loss as a public company on Thursday as it took a previously announced hit for writing down the value of its ailing online unit, but held up better than expected in the face of stagnant computer sales.

Excluding the multibillion-dollar write-down, which was signaled earlier this month, and factoring in some deferred Windows revenue, the world’s largest software company actually exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, boosting its shares in after-market trading.”

Full article

“SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc’s revenue increased 21 percent as strength in its Internet advertising business offset a persisting drop in ad rates, stirring hopes among investors the Web search leader is close to slowing that decline.

Shares of Google were up about 3 percent in after hours trade.

Advertising rates, or costs per click, have headed south as users gravitate to smartphones and tablets, where Google can generally charge less than on desktop computers.”

Full article

$GE beat estimates by a penny as Jeff Imelt moves the company towards industrial production and away from financing.

Full report

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and its Kerr-McGee unit failed to settle a $25 billion lawsuit brought by the U.S. and Tronox Inc. and a trial will resume next week, a lawyer said. Anadarko fell as much as 5.2 percent.

“There is no settlement agreement and we’re going to be resuming trial” on July 24, John Hueston, a lawyer for the U.S. and Tronox said today in a phone interview. Hueston declined to comment on whether further settlement talks were possible, or potential amounts discussed in the talks, which have been going on since at least July 12.

Anadarko remains “committed to resolving the Tronox litigation through informal negotiations or other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms,” John Christiansen, a company spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. He said that the trial is set to resume July 24, as previously scheduled, and declined to comment on the status of the negotiations, saying they are confidential.

Read here:

The economy continues to grow slowly, and the upswing should continue through the rest of the year, Jack Koraleski, Union Pacific CEO, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday.

Koraleski spoke hours after Union Pacific (UNP) posted record second-quarter earnings.

For the quarter, the railroad’s net income rose to $1 billion, or $2.10 per share from $785 million, or $1.59 a share, a year before.

Operating revenue rose 7 percent to $5.2 billion, in line with estimates.

Read here:

“(Reuters) – Travelers Cos Inc reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as the insurer’s catastrophe losses fell from a year ago but were still higher than historical norms.

Travelers executives said they believe the industry lost more than $10 billion on natural disasters in the April-June period, making it one of the worst quarters ever. Chief Executive Jay Fishman, on a call with analysts, said the company lost more in the quarter than it would normally lose in a full year not that long ago.

To deal with the losses, Travelers said it is continuing to push for higher prices where it can and also tightening up on terms and conditions — for example, refusing to insure houses with roofs of a certain age.”

Full report