Joined Nov 11, 2007
31,929 Blog Posts
Boston Bomber’s Uncle: ‘They Do Not Deserve To Live On This Earth’
“Ruslan Tsarni, the uncle of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, told a local television station that the suspects “do not deserve to live on this earth.”
Tsarni told WBZ-TV in Boston (in an interview that was just aired Friday by CNN) that the two suspects — Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev — do not deserve to live, and he apologized to their victims.
“He deserved his. He absolutely deserved his,” Tsarni said of Tamerlan, who was killed early Friday morning. “They do not deserve to live on this earth.”…”
Comments »Live Feed of the Boston Manhunt
Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Upgrades – AMP, AAPL, COG, ETFC, NOK, OSTK, SIX, TOL, TKC, UBS, VRTX
Downgrades – AMAT, AVL, COH, TXN, VAR
Comments »In Play and On the Wires
$MCD Reports Disappointing Earnings
“McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) reported first-quarter 2013 results before markets opened this morning. For the quarter, the fast-food restaurant chain posted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.26 on revenues of $6.61 billion.
In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $1.23 on revenues of $6.55 billion. First-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $1.27 and $6.59 billion in revenues.
Globally, same-store sales in the first quarter fell 1%, and consolidated net income also fell 1%. U.S. same-store sales fell 1.2% and were down 1.1% in Europe and 3.3% in Asia. Results in China were “negative,” according to the company.
McDonald’s has an opportunity to improve its sales in China while competitor Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) struggles with both tainted chicken and bird flu at its KFC stores. But somehow, the company is flubbing it.
The company’s CEO said:
While the Company’s results for the quarter reflected difficult prior year comparisons and the ongoing impact of global economic headwinds, we continue our efforts to build market share and deliver sustained profitable growth for all stakeholders….”
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Chaos Erupts in Boston as Manhunt for Boston Bombers Ensues
“(CNN) — Police sealed off densely populated portions the Boston metro area early Friday after a violent night of chasing the Boston Marathon terror suspects left one of the men and a police officer dead.
Police ordered businesses in the suburb of Watertown and nearby communities to stay closed and told residents to stay inside and answer the door for no one but authorities. Boston authorities advised the same. The city’s subway, bus and Amtrak train systems have been shut down. Taxi service across the city was suspended. Every Boston area school is closed.
“It’s jarring,” said CNN Belief blog writer Danielle Tumminio, who lives in Watertown.
Boston’s public transit authority sent city buses to Watertown to evacuate residents while bomb experts combed the surroundings for possible explosives.
Police shot one of the men dead after a wild car chase through Watertown in which authorities say they hurled explosives at pursuing officers.
Police believe the men are the same ones pictured in images released Thursday by the FBI as suspects in the marathon bombing that killed three people Monday.
The men are shown in the images walking together near the marathon finish line.
Several sources told CNN that the dead suspect has been identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26. The one still being sought is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, age 19.
The first suspect, the one believed killed by police, appears in the images wearing a dark hat, sunglasses and a backpack. The second suspect, wearing a white cap, is the one who remains at large, police said.
Police warned Watertown residents to lock their homes and stay away from their windows and doors.
Federal, state and local law officers are swarming through Watertown, going door-to-door to track him down, said Massachusetts State Police spokesman Col. Timothy Alben.
Police officers in full body armor, carrying automatic weapons, flooded the area as authorities praised residents for their cooperation.
“We need more time,” Alben said. “We’re making significant progress up there. But it may take hours to do this.”
“This situation is grave.” Alben said earlier. “This is a very serious situation that we are dealing with.”
The violence began late Thursday with the robbery of a 7/11 convenience store, he said. Soon after, in Cambridge, across the Charles River from Boston, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was fatally shot while he sat in his car, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in statement. Police believe the bombing suspects were responsible for the shooting.
The same two suspects, according to authorities, then hijacked a car at gunpoint in Cambridge. They released the driver a half-hour later at a gas station.
As police picked up the chase, the car’s occupants threw explosives out the windows and shot at officers, according to the district attorney’s office….”
Comments »$GE Beats Expectations, Immelt Comments on Weakness in Europe
“(Reuters) – Strong sales to aviation customers helped General Electric Co’s first-quarter revenue beat Wall Street expectations on Friday, assuaging fears of a miss after a lukewarm report on March U.S. factory activity.
The world’s biggest maker of jet engines and electric turbines said revenue rose slightly to $35 billion, surpassing the $34.51 billion analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
“That is a beat on revenue, and that’s important because the Street has been very worried about revenue numbers at industrial firms because the quarter appears to have tailed off in March,” said Jack DeGan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which owns GE shares.
The Institute for Supply Management said earlier this month that U.S. factory activity grew at the slowest rate in three months in March, suggesting the economy lost some momentum at the end of the first quarter.
While investors and analysts await more information on sales from GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt on an earnings conference call, GE said in a statement that orders from aviation customers jumped 47 percent and orders from energy customers rose 24 percent in the quarter.
GE’s order backlog – a closely watched indicator of future sales – rose to $216 billion from $210 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. Backlog can be a positive sign that customers are willing to wait in line for a company’s products, or a sign that a company is having a hard time meeting demand. GE’s backlog has grown consistently in recent quarters….”
Comments »$IBM Receives Multiple Downgrades as Earnings Miss Across the Board, All Business Sectors Experience Weakness
“(Reuters) – Three brokerages cut their price targets on IBM Corp shares and warned its weak earnings suggested results would also be disappointing at other hardware technology companies such as EMC Corp, Dell Inc and HP Co.
IBM’s shares were set to open 1.5 percent lower on Friday than their Thursday closing price of $207.15 on the New York Stock Exchange.
IBM posted on Thursday a rare quarterly earnings miss as a sliding yen hurt earnings from Japan and it failed to close a number of major deals, especially in Europe and the United States.
“The IBM miss is a decidedly negative read through for the entire IT hardware segment and we are incrementally more cautious on the sector; particularly those with a March quarter end,” Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore wrote in a note….”
Comments »$MSFT Beats Expectations
“Microsoft (MSFT) shares rose 3% in after-hours trading Thursday after the software leader released March-quarter earnings that beat views on slightly less-than-expected sales.
The company also announced its chief financial officer is leaving at the end of the current quarter.
Microsoft earned 72 cents a share, up 20% from the year-earlier quarter and besting Wall Street’s target of 68 cents, for its fiscal third quarter. Sales rose 18% to $20.49 billion, just shy of the $20.53 billion analysts expected….”
Comments »$GOOG Beats on EPS, Misses on Revenues, Mobile Ad Sale Rise
“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s latest quarterly results provided further proof that the Internet search leader is figuring out how to make more money as Web surfers migrate from personal computers to mobile devices.
The first-quarter numbers released Thursday show that a recent decline in Google’s average ad prices is easing. That’s an indication that marketers are starting to pay more for the ads that Google distributes to smartphones and tablet computers. The company expects that trend to continue as it changes its pricing system and as mobile devices emerge as the most effective way to reach consumers.
In another encouraging sign, the Motorola cellphone business was less of a burden than it has been since Google bought it for $12.4 billion nearly a year ago.
Meanwhile, Google’s core operations, such as Internet search, maps, video and email, remain reliable moneymakers.
Those factors, coupled with an unusually low tax rate, produced earnings that exceeded analyst estimates and pleased investors. Google’s stock gained $11.84, or 1.6 percent, to $777.75 in extended trading Thursday after the report came out.
As with most major technology companies, Google’s future success is likely to hinge on its ability to adjust to an accelerating shift from computers controlled by keyboards and mice to mobile devices that respond to the touch of a finger and are usually within a person’s reach….”
Comments »$BLK Turns in the Towel to Pursue $DELL
“(Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP has ended its pursuit of Dell Inc, three people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, easing the way for founder Michael Dell and his private equity partnerSilver Lake to go ahead with a $24.4 billion deal to acquire the world’s No. 3 PC maker.
New York-based Blackstone pulled out just a month after it first launched a challenge to the billionaire’s attempt to take private the PC maker he founded.
Blackstone withdrew citing an unprecedented 14 percent drop in industry PC sales in the first quarter of 2013 and a lower earnings forecast by the Dell’s management, which saw operating income dropping from $3.7 billion to $3 billion in the current fiscal year, one of the sources said.
Blackstone and activist investor Carl Icahn, who has taken a significant stake in the company and opposes Michael Dell’s buyout, had made preliminary offers to the company challenging the deal with Silver Lake.
Icahn’s chances of a successful rival offer are viewed by analysts and investors as slimmer than Blackstone’s, yet the deal with Silver Lake still faces significant opposition from some Dell shareholders, including Southeastern Asset Management, the activist investor that owns 8.4 percent of the company.
Dell, Blackstone and Silver Lake declined to comment. Icahn could not immediately be reached for comment…”
Comments »$HON Sees Profits Climb 17% on Energy
“Honeywell International Inc. (HON), the maker of cockpit controls and thermostats, reported first- quarter profit that rose more than analysts predicted on increased demand for energy-related services.
Net income climbed to $966 million, or $1.21 a share, compared with $823 million, or $1.04, a year earlier, the Morris Township, New Jersey-based company said today in a statement. The per-share earnings surpassed the $1.14 average of 23 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company also raised the low end of its 2013 earnings target.
A surge in U.S. natural gas production and in companies building petrochemical plants is driving demand for Honeywell’s energy services. That’s making up for a decline in the company’s automobile turbocharger business, which depends on European demand for cars and trucks….”
Comments »$SAP Sales Fall on a Slowing Asia
“SAP AG (SAP), the largest maker of business-management software, reported first-quarter software sales that trailed analysts’ estimates after the company failed to close contracts in the Asia-Pacific region.
Sales of new software licenses, an indicator of future revenue, rose 3 percent to 657 million euros ($859 million), Walldorf, Germany-based SAP said today. That was slower than the 9 percent growth in the previous quarter and fell short of the 726 million-euro median of estimatescompiled by Bloomberg.
Operating profit adjusted for some items rose 8 percent to 901 million euros, also missing estimates. SAP joins other software makers in reporting slowing traditional license sales. Oracle Corp. on March 20 reported revenue and profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates as demand for Web-based programs hurt sales of its hardware and on-premise software.
“Still a notch better than Oracle’s straight miss and negative newsflow from other IT bellwethers,” Thomas Becker, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in a note. “Not a great quarter either, but Q1 is always the smallest quarter and does not establish a trend.”
SAP shares declined the most since Jan. 15, dropping as much as 3.5 percent to 57.55 euros and trading at 58.07 euros as of 9:35 a.m. in Frankfurt today. The stock has gained 18 percent in the past 12 months, valuing the company at 71.4 billion euros.
Leadership Transitions…”
Comments »European Stocks Attempt to Rally on Better Than Expected Earnings
“European stocks advanced for the first time this week as the region’s commodity producers rebounded from a 3 1/2-year low. U.S. index futures and Asian shares also climbed.
Anglo American Plc rose 1.4 percent as the mining company reported increased iron-ore production. L’Oreal SA (OR) gained 3.5 percent after revenue exceeded analysts’ estimates. SAP AG lost 3.1 percent after the largest maker of business-management software reported sales that trailed forecasts.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) added 0.9 percent to 286.33 at 11:19 a.m. in London. The gauge has slipped 2.1 percent so far this week, its biggest drop in two weeks, as commodities fell amid worst-than-forecast economic data from China and the U.S.
“I believe in the growth story,” said Kevin Lilley, a fund manager at Old Mutual Asset Managers U.K. in London, which oversees about $6.1 billion. “I have been adding some cyclicality to my portfolio. We reached all-times highs in the U.S. equity market at a time when some of the economic data has been slightly disappointing, so it’s not surprising that the market has taken a breather this week.”
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.7 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.4 percent after China’s State Information Center said the economy will probably grow at a faster pace in the second and third quarters. In the U.S., 13 S&P 500-listed stocks, including General Electric Co. and McDonald’s Corp., release results today.
Anglo American…”
Comments »China Stocks Lift the Most in a Month on Earnings
“China’s stocks rose the most in a month after companies from Qingdao Haier Co. (600690) to Northeast Securities Co. reported higher profit and a government economist forecast growth will rebound this year.
Qingdao Haier, China’s biggest refrigerator maker, advanced 1.9 percent. Northeast Securities capped its biggest weekly gain in two months. Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. (600111), the largest producer of the metal, paced a rebound for material stocks before the release of earnings today. China Southern Airlines Co., whose profit gets a boost from a stronger yuan, added 2 percent on speculation the currency will gain after the central bank signaled plans to widen a trading band.
“Listed companies will achieve profit growth in the first quarter and that’ll provide support,” said Zhang Qi, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co. in Shanghai. “The slowdown in the economy and expectations about tightening liquidity have already pretty much been priced into stocks.”
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) climbed 2.1 percent to 2,244.64 at the close, capping its biggest gain since March 20. It rose 1.7 percent this week. The CSI 300 added 2.8 percent to 2,533.83. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) advanced 2.4 percent.
Still, the Shanghai Composite has dropped 7.8 percent from a Feb. 6 high, with losses triggered by concern measures to cool property prices will hurt economic growth. Valuations on the Shanghai gauge are 9.2 times projected 12-month earnings, compared with the seven-year average of 15.8, data compiled by Bloomberg show….”
Comments »Yen Driven Lower as G-20 is Unapposed to Easing Policies
“Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said that Japan’s policies went unopposed at a Group of 20 nations’ meeting in Washington, driving the yen lower in the absence of any roadblock for the nation’s monetary stimulus.
Japan explained that its easing is for price stability, Aso told reporters. Central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda earlier said that nations understand Japan’s stance, indicating that he expects no censure. The currency traded at 98.59 per dollar as of 3:04 p.m. in Tokyo, down 0.4 percent.
The G-20 will affirm a commitment to avoid competitive devaluation without singling out any nation, according to a draft statement seen by a Bloomberg BNA reporter. The yen has dropped about 20 percent against the dollar in the past six months, the biggest loser among 16 major currencies, on plans for unprecedented easing.
“Chances are high that the result of the G-20 meeting will deliver tailwinds for Japan and yen depreciation,” said Takahiro Sekido, a strategist in Tokyo at Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., who formerly worked at the BOJ.
Aso said “no one” opposed Japan’s policies at the meeting, about two weeks after the BOJ unveiled a plan to ramp up bond buying and double the monetary base by the end of 2014.
Korean Concerns….”
Comments »Asia Climbs After a Terrible Week of Trade
“Stocks rose, paring the biggest weekly drop in 10 months, as the Group of 20 nations concludes talks aimed at bolstering the global economy. The yen weakened, gold climbed above $1,400 an ounce and oil advanced.
The MSCI All-Country World Index added 0.3 percent at 6:55 a.m. in New York, paring this week’s loss to 2.6 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures gained 0.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.1 percent. Japan’s currency tumbled at least 1 percent against all 16 major peers. The 10- year Treasury yield climbed two basis points to 1.71 percent. Gold rose 1.6 percent and Brent traded above $100 a barrel.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said yesterday that his nation’s policies went unopposed at the G-20 meeting inWashington, signaling further weakening of the yen as the central bank pushes ahead with stimulus measures. A Chinese government economist said growth will rebound. McDonald’s Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. are among companies due to release results before the start of New York trading today.
“After the declines we have seen, it’s to be expected that you will see a bit of a marginal bounce,” Brenda Kelly, market strategist at IG, told Mark Barton in an interview in London on Bloomberg Television.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1 percent for the first advance in six days. The gauge has still fallen 2 percent this week, the biggest drop this year….”
Comments »Asia Rallies, Europe is Flat, and U.S. Futures are Up Modestly
Yields for Italy, Spain, France, and Germany …
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