Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets were split today. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia did well; Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently split. Turkey, Germany, Russia and Portugal are up; the UK and Greece are down. Futures in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: Cult Stocks Take a Hit
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Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Wal-Mart (WMT +2.00%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ and added to the ‘Conviction List’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $117.
Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH +1.49%) ws upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup with a price target of $89.
Fluor (FLR +0.17%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse with a price target of $71.
Avexis (AVXS -0.13%) was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse with a 12-month target price of $134.
Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO +2.54%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Clarksons Platou Securities with a 12-month target price of $17.
Alcoa (AA +1.33%) dropped almost 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.04, below consensus of $1.23.
PTC Corp (PTC +2.16%) jumped 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted revenue of $307 million, better than consensus of $301 million, and said it sees full-year revenue of $1.24 billion-$1.25 billion, the midpoint above consensus of $1.24 billion.
Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO +2.22%) slid 2% in after-hours trading after it announced that it plans to sell $400 million of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.
Eagle Point Credit (ECC -2.00%) fell nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it commenced an underwritten public offering of 1.75 million shares of its common stock.
Paratek Pharmaceuticals (PRTK -0.45%) dropped almost 9% in after-hours trading after it commenced a registered underwritten public offering of $50 million of its shares of common stock.
Electro Scientific Industries (ESIO +9.50%) surged over 20% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 preliminary revenue of between $106 million and $111 million, well above consensus of $85 million.
Playa Hotels & Resorts NV (PLYA +0.27%) fell 4% in after-hours trading after a block of 6 million shares of its common stock was said to be offered at $10.80 to $11.00 via Morgan Stanley.
SLM Corp (SLM +0.17%) lost 2% in after-hours trading after it said it sees full-year core EP of 97 cents to $1.10, weaker than consensus of $1.04.
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR +2.14%) dropped 9% in after-hours trading after it announced a proposed underwritten offering of $40 million of the company’s common stock.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) -6.7% AH as earnings came up short.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) -0.2% hurt by a tax-related charge.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) -1.9% on weak trading revenues.
Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) +0.4% AH beating expectations.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) -1.5% amid sour banking sentiment.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Housing Starts
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
6:05 PM Fed’s Mester: Monetary Policy
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY