Market Pulse
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Newsletter says financial ETF could break out
12 Mar 2010 at 6:52am
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund is testing the top of an eight-month price range and a breakout should see a “sharp move” to $17.50 a share, the ETF Review from Investors Intelligence said Friday. The ETF closed Thursday at $15.60 and has rallied to a gain of nearly 12% over the past month. The financial-sector fund “has enjoyed an excellent run over the past four weeks,” the newsletter said. “This has turned up the relative chart [versus the S&P 500] and it is in a new relative uptrend. The fall/winter 2009 relative downtrend is now history.”
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12 Mar 2010 at 6:51am
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Higher costs and lower volume pushed AEP Industries into the loss column in its fiscal first quarter, the packaging company said Friday. AEP lost $4.9 million, or 72 cents a share, on the period, a turn from a profit of $12.1 million, or $1.79 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Sales fell 13% to $157.2 million. The company said that its volume in the quarter “was consistent with first quarter seasonal trends and an on-going weak economy” but added that it expects full year volume to rise 3% to 5%.
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Nokia changes industry volume methodology
12 Mar 2010 at 6:49am
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Nokia said it’s reclassified how it classifies industry mobile devices, to include vendors of legitimate, as well as unlicensed and counterfeit, products with manufacturing facilities primarily centered around certain locations in Asia and other emerging markets. By the new measurements, Nokia’s market share would have been 34% in 2009, vs. its prior estimate of 38%. It expects industry volumes up 10% in 2010 and it’s targeting flat volume market share and increasing value share in 2010. These expectations and targets are the same as announced by Nokia in late January while now applying the revised market definition. Nokia also said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it expects a ruling from the ITC on whether it infringed nine Apple patents by June 27, and the ITC to rule on whether Apple products infringe seven Nokia patents by Jan. 31, 2011, with a final determination on May 31, 2011.
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Crude, gold add to gains after U.S. retail sales
12 Mar 2010 at 6:41am
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Crude oil and gold futures added to earlier gains on Friday after news that U.S. retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.3% in February. Crude oil for April delivery briefly climbed above $83 a barrel and last traded at $82.87, up 76 cents in electronic trade. Gold for the same month was up $3, or 0.3%, $1,111.20 an ounce.
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U.S. stock futures rise further on retail sales
12 Mar 2010 at 6:39am
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures extended gains on Friday after data had retail sales climbing 0.3% in February, with the report better than anticipated. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 45 points at 10,655. Those for the S&P 500 gained 5.9 points to 1,151.8, while Nasdaq 100 futures were ahead 6.75 points at 1,929.25.
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Treasurys fall, dollar improves after retail sales
12 Mar 2010 at 6:38am
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices declined and the U.S. dollar pared a loss on Friday as a report showed retail sales unexpectedly rose last month by 0.3%. Excluding autos, sales jumped 0.8%. Yields on 10-year notes , which move inversely to prices, increased 4 basis points to 3.77%. The dollar index , which measures the U.S. unit against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, traded at 79.914, better than 79.806 before the data but still down from 80.542 late Thursday. Still to come is a report expected to show a small improvement in consumer sentiment during this month.
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Facet Biotech cut to market perform at BMO Capital
12 Mar 2010 at 6:35am
LONDON (MarketWatch) — BMO Capital downgraded Facet Biotech to market perform from outperform, saying it believes that most shareholders will accept the $27-a-share friendly offer from Abbott Laboratories and that there is only a small probability of a higher offer, which isn’t enough to justify an outperform rating.
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Feb. retail sales rise 0.3% on broad-based gains
12 Mar 2010 at 6:30am
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Led by a big gain in electronics, U.S. retail sales increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in February, despite three major snow storms in the East, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. Sales have risen in four of the past five months, and were up 3.9% compared with a year earlier. Most categories of retailers recorded month-over-month increases. Auto and truck sales were an exception, falling 2% compared with January. Excluding autos and trucks, retail sales increased 0.8%.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting sales to be unchanged, and for sales excluding autos to rise 0.1%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
KKR plans to offer shares on NYSE
12 Mar 2010 at 6:12am
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Private-equity firm KKR & Co. in a filing Friday said it plans to offer up to $2.21 billion worth of shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The filing said KKR Guernsey will be dissolved and its units will be delisted from Euronext Amsterdam, while shareholders will be able to exchange into the new NYSE-listed shares on a one-for-one basis. The common shares will trade on the NYSE under the ticker “KKR,” the company said.
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12 Mar 2010 at 6:01am
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Women’s clothing retailer Ann Taylor Stores Corp. on Friday swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $41,000 or break even a share, from a loss of $375.6 million, or $6.66 a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales fell to $469.1 million from $483.4 million. Excluding restructuring charges, the company said it would have earned 5 cents a share. Analysts, on average, had expected the New York-based company to post a loss of 1 cent a share on sales of $472 million. The company said it has “strong momentum” into the first quarter, with both its namesake and Loft chains generating comparable sales of about 10% in February. It sees first-quarter sales of about $445 million. For the year, it said it sees a return to positive comparable sales at both brands in each quarter this year with total sales to rise above last year’s level.
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BA cabin crew threatens to strike twice in March
12 Mar 2010 at 4:26am
LONDON (MarketWatch) — British Airways cabin crew plan to strike for three days from March 20 and four days from March 27 after the latest offer they made to management was turned down, the Unite trade union said at a press conference on Friday. BA management late Thursday made its own new offer to cabin crew, but Unite said it cannot recommend it, although it will ballot its members on it. Should Unite members decide to accept the offer, then the strikes would be avoided. BA said in a statement it is “extremely disappointed” by cabin crew’s decision to strike and said the action has “no justification.”
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Carrefour cut to underperform by Credit Suisse
12 Mar 2010 at 4:11am
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Carrefour was cut to underperform from neutral by Credit Suisse, which expects more investments to keep market share as the supermarket operator combats its “still considerable French price/perception problems.”
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Guangdong Development Bank to seek IPO this year
12 Mar 2010 at 3:31am
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Guangdong Development Bank said Friday it is considering an initial public offering this year, according to a published report. The mid-sized Chinese lender, in which Citigroup Inc. owns a 20% stake, said it is looking to the fund-raising to help finance its expansion plans, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report, which cited the bank’s chairman, Dong Jianyue, in a company statement. Guangdong Bank reportedly said it was still studying where it should list, in addition to details such as size and timing.
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European shares advance as banks gain
12 Mar 2010 at 3:16am
LONDON (MarketWatch) — European shares moved higher after a flat start on Friday, with banks leading the advance. Shares of Societe Generale climbed 2.2% and shares of UniCredit rose 1.2%. Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.4% to 5,637.90, the German DAX index advanced 0.6% to 5,965.64 and the French CAC-40 index climbed 0.5% to 3,949.84.
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Indonesia’s foreign currency rating raised by S&P
12 Mar 2010 at 3:13am
FRANKFRUT (MarketWatch) — Indonesia’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings was raised on Friday to BB from BB- by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, which said the improving government debt ratio and growing foreign currency reserves reduce the nation’s vulnerability to shocks. The ratings agency said it believes the government will remain committed to cautious fiscal management and that nominal GDP will continue growing at double digits, with government debt ratios improving further. The outlook on the ratings is positive, which reflects S&P’s expectations that the broader economic and fiscal reform agenda will proceed apace once the current political distractions subside.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
source: MarketWatch
November 27 2007 09:09 am
