Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
Yesterday was a relatively boring day until the last hour when the indexes sold off to close at their lows. The VIX nudged up but the put/call ratio dropped. It’s not a great sign for the market to be sitting at support when sentiment indicators suggest there isn’t much fear out there.
Today will begin mixed. Thirty minutes before the open, Nas 100 futures are up 2.25 (0.15%) while SPX futures are down 5.50 (0.65%)
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across the board. Most losses were significant. China fell 6.3%, Hong Kong 4.5% and Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Seoul and Taiwan each fell more than 3%.
Europe is currently down across the board. Austria and Stockholm are down more than 2%. Belgium, France, Amsterdam, Norway, Italy and Madrid are down more than 1%. London is down 0.86%.
The market seems to be sitting on an edge. It needs to bounce now or we’ll get another round of selling pressure that’s likely to push all the indexes below their 2002-2003 lows.
Home Depot (HD) posted earnings of 45 per share vs. 60 cent last year. The Street was expecting 39 cents. They also said revenue may fall 8% vs. the previous estimate of 5%.
Yahoo (YHOO) is up big on the announcement CEO Jerry Yang agreed to resign. I guess he’ll go back to being Chief Yahoo and talks between Yahoo and Microsoft can resume.
Medtronic (MDT) Q2 profit fell due to a one-time charge from a patent dispute with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), but even without the charge, revenue still fell slightly shy of Wall Street forecasts.
Ford (F) is slashing its Mazda holding by nearly two-thirds.
Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) terminated its $2.7 billion takeover of coal producer Alpha Natural Resources (ANR).
Pier 1 (PIR) has warned on Q3; analyst slashes target.
Saks (SKS) Q3 loss exceeded expectations.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) shares are up nicely before the open – the company said they expect Q4 results to be above expectations despite the bad economy.
Burberry () posted a 13% rise in first-half net profit but said second-half was proving to be more difficult.
The pension fund in Florida has lost half its value.
Pepsi Bottling (PBG) cut its 2008 profit outlook and announced restructuring plans that will affect 3,000 jobs.
Mothers Work (MWRK) narrowed its Q4 loss on reduced inventory and cost control efforts.
S&P announced Life Tech (LTEK) will replace Applied Biosystems (ABI) and Stericycle (SRCL) will replace Anheuser-Busch (BUD) in the S&P 500.
Paulson and Bernanke will be on Capital Hill today answering questions (getting grilled) about the $700 billion bailout and why and how the original plan has already been ditched.
Gold is down 2.40 (0.33%)….silver down 0.04 (0.43%).
Crude oil is down 14 cents to trade at 54.81.
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| UPGRADES | WTNY, RNT, ZION, PSA, DIS, CQB, CBRL, MICC, BJS, CHS, PCS, GNCMA, MDTH |
| DOWNGRADES | DRIV, OTEX, TLEO, KO, PEP, INAP, DT, ESLR, ASTI, K, ALB, NT |
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| EARNINGS | |
| before the open | ARM, CMED, GIGM, HD, MDT, MWRK, SOL, SKS |
| during trading | none |
| after the close | DY, JBX, LZB, PSUN, PVH |
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ECONOMIC RELEASES
8:30 Core PPI
8:30 PPI
9:00 Net Foreign Purchases
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