Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
It will be another weak open for the cash market. Thirty minute before the open, Nas 100 futures are down 9 (0.78%) and SPX futures are down 9.25 (1.1%). These numbers aren’t horrible relative to last Friday’s close, but compared to their overnight highs which were hit just a couple hours ago, they are indeed pretty bad.
The Asian/Pacific markets were mostly weak although there weren’t many big moves. On the upside, China gained 2.2%. On the downside, India lost 1% and Indonesia and Australia fell more than 2%.
Europe is down across the board. Spain is down 3.3%, Norway and Switzerland down more than 2%, and Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Amsterdam, Italy and London are down more than 1%.
Japan’s Q3 GDP was negative for the second consecutive quarter – that’s the technical definition of a recession. It’s the first time since 2001.
GM is up 12% before the open –they’ll be raising $230 million by selling their 3% stake in Suzuki.
According to CNBC, Citigroup (C) plans to cut 50,000 jobs. This is on top of the 23,000 they’re already cut.
Lowe’s (LOW) said Q3 profits fell 24% on slow spending. This was better than Wall Street expected.
A Soleil Securities analyst cut her price target for Disney (DIS) in half – from 40 to 23.
Mylan (MYL) said Monday the Food and Drug Administration tentatively approved the drug developer’s generic capsule version of Wyeth’s (WYE) antidepressant Effexor XR.
Shares of JP Morgan (JPM) fell slightly in premarket trading, a day after Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reported the New York-based bank was poised to 3,000 jobs amid the ongoing credit crisis.
Biotechnology company United Therapeutics (UTHR) said Monday it is licensing rights to sell Eli Lilly’s (LLY) erectile dysfunction drug Cialis as a hypertension treatment in the U.S.
Goldman Sachs (GS) said its top executives are foregoing bonuses in 2008, while a Citi Investment Research analyst became the latest to cut his earnings estimates for the bank.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) more than quadruples stake in ConocoPhillips (COP).
UBS AG (UBS) said Monday that starting next year it will stop making bonus payments to its chairman and that other top executives will be penalized if the bank performs badly to discourage irresponsible risk-taking.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will open three offices in China this week in an unprecedented effort to improve the safety of exports headed to America amid recurring product safety scares.
Covidien’s (COV) fiscal 4th-quarter profit surges, but stronger US dollar prompts weak outlook
Genworth (GNW) to buy InterBank as part of plan to tap government’s $700 billion relief program.
There’s lots of talk about the ultimate fate of the US auto industry. Bernanke and Paulson appear before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, so comments could be made as to whether the auto makers will get any of the $700 billion bail-out money.
Very soon it will be do or die time for the market. Last Thursday’s massive rally was either a one-day wonder and new lows will be made soon, or Friday’s late-day sell-off was just some forced liquidation by a couple large funds, and the market will soon move up.
Gold is down 5.40 (0.73%) and silver is down 0.20 (2.11%).
Crude oil is down 1.46 to trade at $55.58.
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| UPGRADES | MCD, PRXL, YUM, COGT |
| DOWNGRADES | LRN, MDTH, CBS, VIA.B, FCX, WCC, A, WFR, AA, CB, MTL, FMX, MDZ, DIS |
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| EARNINGS | |
| before the open | COV, DHT, LOW, NSSC, ORBK, RTLX, TGT |
| during trading | none |
| after the close | CNTF, CTRP, IMCL, JMBA, KONG, NUAN, SGK, NCTY, XFML |
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ECONOMIC RELEASES
8:30 NY Empire State Index
9:15 Capacity Utilization
9:15 Industrial Production
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