Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China and India rallied more than 3%. Seoul moved up 1.3%. Most other indexes gained ground.
Europe is down across the board. Spain, Stockholm, Germany, Amsterdam, France and London are down more than 2%.
Futures here in the States indicate a gap down open for the cash market. 35 minutes before the open, Nas 100 futures are down 20.25 (1.68%) to trade at 1183.75 while SPX futures are down 16.75 (1.96%) to trade at 851.75.
China cut fuel prices Wednesday for the second time in a month, giving another break to struggling companies and motorists as it steps up efforts to break out of a deepening economic slump.
The German economy grew by 1.3 percent in 2008, only about half the previous year’s rate as the global financial crisis took its toll on exports, preliminary government figures showed Wednesday.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sells 4.3 percent stake in Bank of China for $2.37 billion.
Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Germany’s biggest bank, said Wednesday it lost an estimated euro4.8 billion ($6.4 billion) in the fourth quarter last year as the global economic downturn weighed heavily on its bottom line. The stock dropped more than 7%.
HSBC Holdings Plc (HBC), Europe’s largest bank by market value, tumbling 8.3% after Morgan Stanley predicted it will have to raise as much as $30 billion and cut its dividend in half and that the bank’s profit is likely to fall “sharply” this year and won’t recover until 2011 at the earliest.
Siemens AG (SI) dropped over 6% today after Merrill Lynch downgraded Europe’s largest engineering company to “neutral” from “buy” after saying Q1 orders dropped “significantly.”
The Russian ruble fell to a nearly 6-year low against the dollar today as Russia’s central bank devalued the ruble for the third time in four days and as the government’s dispute with Ukraine over gas shipments remains unresolved.
Citigroup (C) signaled the end of a decade-long experiment to create one-stop shopping for financial services — everything from consumer loans to investment banking — with Tuesday’s announcement that it was merging its Smith Barney brokerage into a joint venture with Morgan Stanley (MS).
Yahoo (YHOO) has named Carol Bartz, formerly of Autodesk, to be their new CEO.
Ametek Inc. (AME), a manufacturer of electric motor and aircraft monitoring equipment, on Wednesday estimated fourth-quarter profit at the low end of its prior forecast, and said it will take a restructuring charge between $38 million and $40 million for the quarter.
Schering-Plough (SGP) says FDA requested more info on schizophrenia drug but doesn’t need new trials.
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) said Wednesday that its same-store sales for the holiday season slid 24 percent primarily on softness at its domestic stores and warned that the performance would drag down fourth-quarter earnings.
Barclays PLC (BCS) said Wednesday it plans to cut up to 2,100 jobs in its retail and commercial banking units, adding to redundancies of the same size in its investment banking arms announced Tuesday.
International Paper (IP) declares quarterly dividend of 25 cents, payable March 16.
Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) declares quarterly dividend of 8.75 cents, payable March 2.
Lennar (LEN) declares quarterly dividend of 4 cents, payable Feb. 13.
Aon (AOC) declares quarterly dividend of 15 cents, payable Feb. 16
Artesian Resources (ARTNA) declares quarterly dividend of 17.84 cents, payable Feb. 20.
Procter & Gamble (PG) declares quarterly dividend of 40 cents, payable Feb. 17
Supervalu (SVU) begins planned stores closures throughout the country.
Bank of New York Mellon (BK) declares quarterly dividend of 24 cents, payable Feb. 3.
Bunge (BG) has lowered its 2008 earnings estimate due to a soft soybean commodity market.
Ford (F) and Navistar (NAV) said they will restructure existing business relationships to settle litigation.
Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s (GWR) carloads from continuing operations increased 14.2% last month from Dec ’07.
Linear Technology (LLTC) second-quarter profit fell to $84.2 million, or 38 cents a share, from $93.8 million, or 41 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
Oracle (ORCL) cut 500 North American sales and consulting positions.
Gold is flat. Silver is down 1.2%
Crude oil up 65 cents to trade at 38.43.
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| UPGRADES |
BCE, PRSP, ALGT, LPL, SKM, CLB, SOHU, AUO |
| DOWNGRADES |
CPHD, CCJ, SJR, STX, ATR, STD, REP, STO, AAUK, TLK, SU, STP, BPZ, PDE, NOV, OZM, FIG, GLG, BX, NVO, CPX, DRC, HNZ, PCU, MDRX, RIG, SII, VISN |
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| EARNINGS | |
| before the open | AMR, NITE, LCRY |
| during trading | none |
| after the close | CLC, GKK, XLNX |
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ECONOMIC RELEASES
8:30 Export Prices ex. ag
8:30 Import Prices ex oil
8:30 Retail Sales
8:30 Retail Sales ex auto
10:00 Business Inventories
10:35 Crude Inventories
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