Monthly Archives: April 2012
Lamborghini Comes Out With a Porsche Cayenne Killer
Maybe not a killer as most of us will not be able to afford it, but certainly a better looking style and performance SUV….
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Democrats Manipulated The 2008 Election Results According to Leaked Stratfor E-mails
“John McCain’s 2008 campaign staff allegedly had evidence that Democrats stuffed ballot boxes in Pennsylvania and Ohio on election night, but McCain chose not to pursue voter fraud, according to internal Stratfor emails published by WikiLeaks.
In an email sent on November 7, 2008, and titled ” Insight – The Dems & Dirty Tricks ** Internal Use Only – Pls Do Not Forward **,” Stratfor vice president of intelligence Fred Burton wrote:
1) The black Dems were caught stuffing the ballot boxes in Philly and Ohio as reported the night of the election and Sen. McCain chose not to fight. The matter is not dead inside the party. It now becomes a matter of sequence now as to how and when to “out”.
In an email sent two days earlier and titled “Insight – McCain #5 ** internal use only – Pls do not forward **,” Burton wrote:
After discussions with his inner circle, which explains the delay in his speech, McCain decided not to pursue the voter fraud in PA and Ohio, despite his staff’s desire to make it an issue. He said no. Staff felt they could get a federal injunction to stop the process. McCain felt the crowds assembled in support of Obama and such would be detrimental to our country and it would do our nation no good for this to drag out like last go around, coupled with the possibility of domestic violence.
The Nov. 7 email also contains allegations that Democrats made a “six-figure donation” to Rev. Jesse Jackson to silence him on the topic of Israel after an October 2008 interview in which he said Obama’s presidency would remove the clout of “Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades.”
Burton, who appears to be friendly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote:
2) It appears the Dems “made a donation” to Rev. Jesse (no, they would never do that!) to keep his yap shut after his diatribe about the Jews and Israel. A little bird told me it was a “nice six-figure donation”. This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.
The email also refers to an accusation that Obama’s campaign took money from Russia, recalling memories of Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign when the Justice Department uncovered evidence that China sought to make direct contributions to the Democratic National Committee.
Burton wrote:
3) The hunt is on for the sleezy Russian money into O-mans coffers. A smoking gun has already been found. Will get more on this when the time is right. My source was too giddy to continue. Can you say Clinton and ChiCom funny money? This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.
If true the allegations prompt questions of how the fallout has affected the politics of Obama’s current administration and how it will effect this year’s presidential election.
Interestingly, Mitt Romney is also facing allegations of voter fraud in Massachusetts as he cast a ballot for Republican Scott Brown in January 2010 in the special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy but didn’t own property in the state at the time.
Romney registered to vote listing his son’s unfinished basement as his residence, but the Romneys’ former realtor told long-shot GOP candidate Fred Karger that they moved to California. Anyone found guilty of committing voter fraud faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
Burton is a former Deputy Chief of the Department of State’s counterterrorism division for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The DSS assists the Department of Defense in following leads and doing forensic analysis of hard drives seized by the U.S. government in ongoing criminal investigations.
Stratfor provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
WikiLeaks has published 973 out of what it says is a cache of 5 million internal Stratfor emails (dated between July 2004 and December 2011) obtained by the hacker collective Anonymous around Christmas.”
Comments »Sarah Palin Warns President Obama That The Secret Service Might Be ‘Checking Out’ Michelle Obama, Too
Matt Taibbi Predicts a Death Spiral for Banks
“We haven’t been hearing a lot from Matt Taibbi lately because he’s on deadline.
But he took a break from his furious writing to comment on this week’s bank earning and the impending Moody’s downgrade of a few of the major Street players — BofA, Morgan Stanley, Goldman and Citi.
We know that earlier this week, Black Rock’s Larry Fink said that if some of these banks were downgraded, his massive asset management firm would have to stop doing business with them — they have stringent rules about ratings, you see.
To Taibbi, that’s a nail in the coffin. From Rolling Stone:
…when big money players stop trading with those firms, that’s when the death spirals begin.
Morgan Stanley in particular should be sweating. They’re apparently going to be downgraded three notches, where they’ll be joining Citi and Bank of America at a level just above junk. But no worries: Bank CFO Ruth Porat announced that a three-level downgrade was “manageable” and that only losers rely totally on agencies like Moody’s to judge creditworthiness. “A lot of clients are doing their own credit work,” she said.
As for the bank earnings, Taibbi focused on the bank he hates the most (right now)— Bank of America. It just so happens that, if you read BofA’s Q1 earnings report closely enough, it says the government forced the bank to reclassify some of its debt.
During 1Q12, the bank regulatory agencies jointly issued interagency supervisory guidance on nonaccrual policies for junior-lien consumer real estate loans. In accordance with this new guidance, beginning in 1Q12, we classify junior-lien home equity loans as nonperforming when the first-lien loan becomes 90 days past due even if the junior-lien loan is performing. As a result of this change, we reclassified $1.85B of performing home equity loans to nonperforming.
So yeah, basically Taibbi’s point (h/t to ZeroHedge who gave him a heads up on this) is that BofA tried to pass off a bunch of non-performing loans as gold. The government may have caught a batch of those, but how many batches are there, really?”
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Today’s 52 Week Highs and Lows
NASDAQ
New Highs 33 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Actuate BIRT 6.96 45,327 Alliance Bancorp of PA ALLB 11.59 800 Arctic Cat ACAT 46.25 23,192 BBC Capital Trust II 8.5% BBXT 32.94 1,100 Cardinal Fincl CFNL 12.27 30,365 Casey's General Stores CASY 57.35 47,024 Catalyst Health Solutions CHSI 92.62 301,325 ChemoCentryx CCXI 17.31 4,914 CommVault Systems CVLT 55.42 61,755 Cynosure (Cl A) CYNO 20.42 10,260 Datawatch Corp DWCH 15.03 11,175 Eastern VA Bankshares EVBS 4.00 8,354 First Citizens Banc FCZA 6.61 700 Fonar Corp FONR 5.12 142,454 Fresh Market TFM 54.04 36,658 Great Wolf Resorts WOLF 8.11 685,725 Grifols ADS GRFS 8.12 89,614 HealthStream HSTM 26.90 22,170 Hibbett Sports HIBB 58.69 37,047 Home BancShares HOMB 28.04 36,291 HomeStreet HMST 34.63 4,609 Peapack Gladstone PGC 15.19 200 Perrigo Co PRGO 108.60 136,674 SXC Health Solutions SXCI 100.50 340,647 John B Sanfilippo & Son JBSS 13.65 2,019 Southside Bancshares SBSI 21.86 18,549 Splunk SPLK 36.64 392,611 Tangoe TNGO 21.74 70,996 Telular WRLS 9.20 19,898 Trinity Biotech PLC (ADS) TRIB 11.20 4,350 Volterra Semiconductor VLTR 34.87 98,932 West Coast Bncrp (Oregon) WCBO 19.98 20,610 WisdomTree Emg Mkts Corp EMCB 75.86 298 New Lows 9 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Aegerion Pharmaceuticals AEGR 11.75 9,844 Amyris AMRS 3.17 43,550 Catalyst Pharm Partners CPRX 0.75 24,570 Cleveland BioLabs CBLI 1.31 94,251 Crumbs Bake Shop CRMB 2.90 250 Ecotality ECTY 0.75 27,420 Education Management EDMC 11.92 12,166 Groupon Inc GRPN 11.51 160,559 Wave Systems (Cl A) WAVX 1.32 137,168
NYSE
New Highs 5 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ British Amer Tobacco BTI 104.36 30,532 Cheniere Energy LNG 18.29 818,861 ELLIE MAE ELLI 12.27 7,751 PacificBookerMinerals PBM 10.75 3,200 Supreme Indus STS 3.95 72,749 New Lows 3 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ China Pharma Holdings CPHI 0.50 4,050 Extorre Gold Mines XG 4.15 28,184 Orion Engy Sys Inc OESX 1.95 9,420Comments »
Today’s Heat Map and A/D Lines
Most Active Options Trades
CALLS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE BAC 4/21/12 9.0000 846 0.0100 dn 0.0100 AAPL 4/21/12 590.0000 392 6.3600 up 2.7600 AAPL 4/21/12 595.0000 333 3.3100 up 1.2000 AAPL 4/21/12 600.0000 317 1.4600 up 0.2700 X 4/21/12 29.0000 292 0.2700 up 0.1500 AAPL 4/21/12 585.0000 204 8.0900 up 1.7400 CSX 5/19/12 20.0000 200 1.7900 dn 0.0200 GLD 4/21/12 160.0000 120 0.1300 dn 0.1900 GLD 4/27/12 159.0000 112 1.6000 dn 0.1500 GS 4/21/12 115.0000 109 0.0700 dn 0.0900 -PUTS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE TBT 4/21/12 20.0000 360 1.2500 dn 0.1300 NFLX 5/19/12 105.0000 253 8.2700 up 0.1700 AUY 4/21/12 15.0000 247 0.7200 up 0.0300 AUY 5/19/12 14.0000 247 0.4500 up 0.0400 NFLX 5/19/12 85.0000 232 1.8600 up 0.2700 GLD 4/21/12 159.0000 185 0.2300 dn 0.1600 AAPL 4/21/12 585.0000 178 1.5400 dn 2.3600 BHI 4/21/12 45.0000 150 3.2800 dn 0.7700 BHI 10/20/12 40.0000 150 3.6300 dn 0.2700 MSFT 4/21/12 31.0000 115 0.0100 dn 0.3800 -VOLUME- CALLS PUTS TOTAL 17120 17113 34233
-CALLS-
OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE
MSFT 4/21/12 32.0000 8118 0.5100 up 0.4100
AMD 4/21/12 8.0000 6253 0.1300 dn 0.1100
AMD 5/19/12 8.0000 6063 0.3700 dn 0.0500
AAPL 4/21/12 590.0000 5445 6.4000 up 2.4500
AAPL 4/21/12 600.0000 3841 1.6000 up 0.4600
AAPL 4/21/12 595.0000 3202 3.4500 up 1.3300
MSFT 5/19/12 33.0000 2965 0.4500 up 0.2800
MSFT 5/19/12 32.0000 2678 0.9700 up 0.5700
AAPL 4/21/12 585.0000 2569 10.4000 up 4.0000
BAC 8/18/12 12.0000 2467 0.0800 dn 0.0100
-PUTS-
OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE
MSFT 4/21/12 32.0000 4852 0.0100 dn 1.0300
AAPL 4/21/12 585.0000 3771 1.1900 dn 2.7600
AAPL 4/21/12 580.0000 2770 0.6200 dn 1.4300
MSFT 5/19/12 31.0000 2363 0.2900 dn 0.5700
AAPL 4/21/12 575.0000 2054 0.3000 dn 0.9300
AAPL 4/21/12 590.0000 1972 2.2100 dn 4.0900
AAPL 4/21/12 570.0000 1169 0.2100 dn 0.4300
FRX 5/19/12 33.0000 1000 0.5000 up 0.1000
CECO 4/21/12 7.0000 981 0.1500 up 0.0000
BIDU 4/21/12 145.0000 911 0.4200 dn 0.7000
-VOLUME-
CALLS PUTS TOTAL
384620 282865 667485
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A Look at Oligarchy in America (video & infograpghic)
Food Stamp Rolls Grow by 70% Since 2007
The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014.
- Click for larger CBO infographic.
Spending for the program, not including administrative costs, rose to $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion four years earlier. The CBO projected that one in seven U.S. residents received food stamps last year.
In a report, the CBO said roughly two-thirds of jump in spending was tied to an increase in the number of people participating in the program, which provides access to food for the poor, elderly, and disabled. It said another 20% “of the growth in spending can be attributed to temporarily higher benefit amounts enacted in the” 2009 stimulus law.
CBO said the number of people receiving benefits is expected to fall after 2014 because the economy will be improving.
“Nevertheless, the number of people receiving SNAP benefits will remain high by historical standards,” the agency said….”
Comments »Analyst: Natty Gas Drilling to Decline
“As natural gas prices continue to collapse (nearing $1.9), we are starting to hear more talk about production cuts.
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| Natural gas nearby futures contract price |
But the market remains skeptical.
WP: “Companies can talk all they want about reducing production, but until we start seeing a difference, prices are going to fall,” independent analyst and trader Stephen Schork said.
Part of this skepticism is driven by the inventory levels which are still extremely high relative to historical ranges.
With massive amounts of new gas coming out of the Marcellus formation, are companies actually trying to cut production? The chart below shows that production, though still at historically record levels, has indeed leveled off.
EIA: After a long period of steady growth, U.S. daily dry gas production growth leveled off during the first three months of 2012, averaging 63.8 Bcfd through March 31, a level almost 9% above the same period in 2011.
But in order for gas prices to stabilize, the market is looking for production to start declining materially. In anenvironment where production quotas are not permitted by law (the way that OPEC does with crude production), each firm would need to cut output on its own in order to stem the flow of gas. It’s a tough decision because the lower the price the more companies want to pump to generate their target revenue – until of course the margins are no longer there and sales begin to generate losses.”
Comments »Is Oil Really Worth More Than $100 a Barrel?
“That appears to be a big question on traders’ minds since late February when oil futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange neared $110, which has so far marked the peak for the year.
And despite ongoing Middle East threats to global supplies and a complicated background comprised of market manipulation talk, government oversight proposals and pipeline changes and expansions, many analysts don’t believe prices are where they should be — simply because there’s too much oil in the market.
“The economic price for (West Texas Intermediate) oil is in the $80-$85 range,” said Mickey Cargile, managing partner at Cargile Investments, basing his estimate on where he sees supplies locally and in Cushing, Okla., the delivery hub for Nymex oil.
“Our range valuation suggests a 15%-20% risk premium priced for potential supply disruption from Iran,” he said.
On Thursday, crude futures CLK2 +1.80% settled at $102.27 a barrel. It’s up 3% year to date, but down nearly 7% from a peak close of $109.77 on Feb. 24, according to data from FactSet Research.
“If it were not for some of the Iranian oil off the market because of sanctions and the fear of supply interruptions, the price could be lower,” said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics….”
Comments »Investors to ECB: 1 Trillion Euros is Not Enough
“WASHINGTON�(CNNMoney) — The European Central Bank has pulled out all the stops over the past few months to prevent a credit crunch by providing banks with €1 trillion in ultra-low cost financing.
That €1 trillion move, which was hailed as a game changer, helped ease pressure on eurozone nations as some banks used the money to buy government bonds.
But the potency of the ECB’s two long-term refinancing operations, or LTROs, appears to be fading as yields on Spanish and Italian bonds have shot higher in recent weeks.
ECB president Mario Draghi has said the goal is to support the economy by helping banks that have been struggling to fund themselves amid concerns about exposure to sovereign debt. He has called on eurozone officials to take advantage of improved market conditions to push ahead with fiscal consolidation and structural reforms aimed at increasing economic competitiveness.
Still, the renewed tensions have raised speculation that the ECB could resume its controversial purchases of government bonds.
Robert Zoellick, the outgoing president of the World Bank, said Thursday that the ECB’s “extraordinary actions” were appropriate, although he suggested that more may need to be done.
“We are now in a phase where, after the ECB provided very attractive financial resources to a number of the banks to be able to buy government debt…they are about at the end of that point and limit, so I think further actions are going to be called for,” said Zoellick….”
Comments »VCs Invested $5.8B In 758 Deals In Q1 2012
Karl Rove Gets Behind Romney as ‘the Brain’
“(Reuters) – Nearly a decade ago he was dubbed “Bush’s Brain,” for his influence in guiding Republican George W. Bush to the U.S. presidency.
This year, Karl Rove could be Mitt Romney’s brawn.
Perhaps no one, besides Romney himself, will have a greater influence on the course of the Republican presidential campaign this fall than Rove, the brash, often-controversial architect of Bush’s two successful bids for the White House.
Bush called Rove “Turd Blossom,” a term Texans use to describe a flower that grows from a pile of cow dung. This year, thanks to the American Crossroads “Super PAC” organization that he co-founded, Rove will have vast resources to fertilize Romney’s campaign: a massive wallet, one of the loudest megaphones in conservative media, and close ties to Romney’s campaign.
It’s a dramatic re-emergence for Rove, who resigned as Bush’s deputy chief of staff in 2007 amid questions about his role in the firing of a federal prosecutor.
In an interview with Reuters, Rove described his vision for Crossroads, which he founded with his friend Ed Gillespie in 2010. Crossroads – which has received seven-figure donations from several wealthy Republicans – hopes to spend $300 million on this election.”
Comments »James Bianco: Stock Picking Dead — We’re Investing in Bernanke
“Federal Reserve policies are pumping up markets to the point that the art of picking stocks based on corporate and economic fundamentals is dead, says James Bianco, president of Bianco Research.
Since the downturn, the Federal Reserve under Chairman Ben Bernanke has pumped trillions into the economy and slashed interest to ensure long-term borrowing costs stay low in hopes businesses invest and hire.
Such a policy, known as quantitative easing, pumps up stock prices in the process and has also been a tool of choice for the European Central Bank and other monetary authorities.
“Stock picking is a dead art,” Bianco tells MarketWatch.
“The most important man in investing decisions is Ben Bernanke. It shouldn’t be, but it is. We are in a post-crisis environment where the Fed is running the most extreme policy it’s ever run; Europe is even more extreme. That affects all investment decisions.”
Since Fed intervention makes short-term stock market plays the only viable investment option, most investors should go light on stocks until fundamentals return to the market’s driver’s seat and not Federal Reserve juicing, Bianco says.
Furthermore, the Fed will have to mop up excess liquidity in the marketplace once the economy does show signs of improvement or it will face heavy inflationary pressures.
“If Bernanke really wants to instill confidence, he needs to tell us in clear and precise language how the Fed intends to get out of this,” Bianco says.
“I get it that you’ve put us on this ‘sugar high,’ rammed interest rates down and stock prices up. But tell me how you’re going to stop, so this is not going to wind up like the fall of 2008 or the summer of 1979 with inflation.”
Treasurys, meanwhile, will serve as a good option to ride out current market conditions, Bianco says.”
Comments »Critics Say the Real Rate of Inflation is Above 10%
“Maggie Humphrey, a price collector for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, visits the same grocery store every month in the Chicago suburbs to punch the cost of a pound of bananas into her Lenovo tablet computer.
“That price has not fluctuated since I’ve been here,” says Humphrey, who started gathering prices for the BLS in 2006 and has checked bananas at this particular establishment for about a year. She records it as 69 cents a pound and includes their country of origin, whether they’re on sale and any applicable sales tax.
Humphrey is among 400 price collectors who visit 23,000 locations in 87 cities every month to determine the cost of 80,000 products and services, from breakfast cereal to haircuts. She and her colleagues feed a database in Washington, where statisticians compile the monthly inflation report, used as benchmark for everything from Social Security payments to the value of Treasury’s inflation-indexed bonds.
The bureau’s price-gathering and statistical methods are standard practice from Japan to Switzerland. That hasn’t averted a lashing from critics who say the government is engaged in a campaign to hide inflation of 10 percent a year or more. Assurances by Federal Reserve policy makers that inflation remains “subdued” also haven’t deterred the skeptics.
“I’m as hawkish and worried about inflation as anybody,” said Stephen Stanley, Chief Economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut and one of the top forecasters of CPI over the last two years in Bloomberg News surveys. “But the idea that inflation is 10 percent is not a proper reading of the data.”
One Critic
One such critic is John Williams, the author of Shadow Government Statistics, a newsletter that he has run since 2004. Williams says the federal government understates the level of inflation to keep increases in Social Security payments and other costs down.
“The reporting system increasingly succumbed to pressures from miscreant politicians, who were and are intent upon stealing income from Social Security recipients, without ever taking the issue of reduced entitlement payments before the public or Congress for approval,” Williams says on his website, shadowstats.com.
Williams’s alternate measure of inflation was 10.3 percent for the 12 months through March, compared with 2.7 percent for the Consumer Price Index. He calculates unemployment at more than 20 percent rather than the official 8.2 percent in March. His assessment of gross domestic product has clocked negative economic performance in every quarter since 2005. The Department of Commerce’s measure turned negative in 2008 and 2009, recording the worst recession since the Great Depression. The economy is nearing “hyperinflationary Great Depression,” he says on his web site….”
Read more
Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
“Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) Cut to Sell from Underperform at Credit Agricole.
Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM) Started as Neutral at UBS.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo; called “a stock to avoid on more ‘off balance sheet’ debt and ‘Founders Well’ issues” by Argus.
Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
Embraer SA (NYSE: ERJ) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
EZCORP, Inc. (NASDAQ: EZPW) Cut to Underperform at Stern Agee.
Gran Tierra Energy, Inc. (AMEX: GTE) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA) Raised to Buy at Wunderlich.
Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LL) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) Raised to Outperform at Cowen.
Nexen Inc. (NYSE: NXY) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE: PAA) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan; Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer; downgrades and price target and estimates have been cut at multiple boutique firms.
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; downgraded or estimate and price targets cut at several other boutique firms.
Syntroleum Corporation (NASDAQ: SYNM) Started as Market Outperform with $1.80 price target at JMP Securities.”
Comments »U.S. Equity Preview: $AMD, $COF, $CPHD, $CMG, $EZPW, $MSFT, $RVBD, $SNDK, & $TPX
“Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) : The second-largest maker of processors for personal computers forecast sales growth that beat estimates as supply constraints eased and demand increased for personal-computer chips.
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF US): The lender that acquired ING Groep NV’s online U.S. bank this year posted a higher first-quarter profit as credit-card rewards programs fueled customer spending.
Cepheid Inc. (CPHD) : The maker of a rapid test for the drug-resistance staph infection known as MRSA lowered its forecast for adjusted earnings in 2012 to between 50 cents and 55 cents a share from a previous projection of as much as 60 cents.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) : The burrito seller that was best-performing restaurant stock in the S&P 500 last year said first-quarter profit rose 35 percent as U.S. consumers dined out more.
Ezcorp Inc. (EZPW) : The short-term cash lender forecast earnings in 2012 to be no more than $2.95 a share, down from an earlier projection of at least $3.05 and below the average analyst estimate of $3.06.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) : The world’s largest software maker reported fiscal third-quarter profit that topped estimates on better-than-expected corporate software sales.
Riverbed Technology Inc. (RVBD) : The maker of computer- networking products reported first-quarter sales of $183 million, missing the average analyst estimate of $186.1 million.
SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) : The biggest maker of flash-memory cards posted first-quarter earnings of 63 cents a share, missing the average analyst estimate by 4 cents.
Tempur-Pedic International Inc. (TPX) : The maker of luxury mattresses reaffirmed its forecasts for earnings and sales in 2012, which fell short of analysts’ estimates. “
Comments »Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Gapping up
ACTG +10.9%, DANG +4.7%, DB +3.9%, MSFT +3.4%, BCS +2.4%, SLB +2.4%, STD +1.6%,
KMB +1.6%, GE +1.2%, COF +1.1%, SNY +1%, CMG +1%, ETFC +2.9%, AMD +1.9%,
Gapping down
RVBD -11.9%, TPX -10.6%, CPHD -9.0% , GDI -4.7% , SNDK -2.1%,
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