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Re: ReturntoSender post# 6755

Saturday, 07/23/2011 9:22:40 PM

Saturday, July 23, 2011 9:22:40 PM

Post# of 12809
From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 22-Jul-11Stocks rallied more than 2% as European leaders reached an agreement to bail out Greece. The main thrust (and surprise) of the headlines was not so much that a solution had been worked out for Greece, but that leaders were focused on controlling contagion risk by enhancing the flexibility of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

While details of Greece's new bailout package continue to emerge, reports indicate EU leaders agreed to allow the EFSF to intervene in the secondary markets and provide liquidity, thereby aiding the European Central Bank and helping countries like Greece. In addition, the terms on the EFSF loans will be doubled from 7.5 years to 15 years and decrease interest rates from 5-6% to 3.5%. Private sector holders of Greek debt have agreed to take a 21% haircut on their bond holdings, equivalent to 37 bln euros.

The news gave a boost to stocks as nine of 10 sectors advanced. Tech, energy and financials outperformed. Defensive sectors underperformed, with telecom down 0.1%.

Among other investable assets, crude gained 2.6%, the dollar fell 1.2% and Treasury yields increased from 2.90% to 2.98%.

U.S. lawmakers are still trying to reach agreement on a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Current indications from prediction market Intrade suggest there is lower probability that a deal will be reached compared to one week ago.

In corporate news, it was a busy week on the earnings front with roughly 20% of S&P 500 companies reporting. Results were generally better than expected with about 75% of companies topping EPS estimates.

Widely-held names Apple (AAPL), IBM (IBM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AT&T (T), Coca-Cola (KO) and Microsoft (MSFT) all topped EPS estimates. Apple was especially a standout, gaining 7.8% after blowing by estimates in its best quarter ever and on trailing basis surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) net income for the first time.

Investment banking giants Goldman Sacs (GS) missed estimates but its shares still rose 4.2% for the week.

The coming week brings another bevy of earnings reports, advance second quarter GDP, new home sales and consumer confidence.
 
Index Started Week Ended Week Change % Change YTD %
DJIA 12479.70 12681.10 201.40 1.6 9.5
Nasdaq 2789.80 2858.83 69.03 2.5 7.8
S&P 500 1316.14 1345.02 28.88 2.2 6.9
Russell 2000 828.78 841.82 13.04 1.6 7.4

7:49AM Celestica beats by $0.04, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS in-line, revs in-line (CLS) 8.52 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.27 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.23; revenues rose 15.4% year/year to $1.83 bln vs the $1.81 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q3, sees EPS of $0.23-0.29, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.25 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q3 revs of $1.725-1.875 bln vs. $1.85 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. "Celestica had strong financial results in the second quarter as we delivered robust margin expansion and we achieved 15% year-over-year revenue growth... Despite this environment, Celestica remains focused on providing industry-leading flexibility and operational performance to support our customers' success and delivering on our 2011 revenue growth, operating margin and ROIC targets."

Microsemi Corporation (MSCC) announced its award-winning SmartFusion customizable system-on-chip devices are now supported by FreeRTOSTM, a scale-able real time kernel designed specifically for small embedded systems, and can be used in any type of application.

6:37AM General Electric beats by $0.02, beats on revs (GE) 19.16 : Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.34 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.32; revenues fell 3.5% year/year to $35.63 bln vs the $34.7 bln consensus. primarily driven by the absence of NBCU revenues after the sale of GE's majority position to Comcast. Excluding this impact, revs were up 7%. GE Capital Services' (GECS) revs decreased 1% from last year to $12.4 bln. Industrial sales of $23.0 bln decreased 6% YoY. Segment profit increased 18% YoY, as increases of more than 100% at GE Capital, more than 500% at Transportation, 9% at Aviation and 8% at Healthcare more than offset earnings decreases of 19% at Energy Infrastructure and 26% at Home & Business Solutions. GE's backlog grew to a record high of $189 bln. Total infrastructure orders were up 24%, reflecting robust strength in equipment orders, up 33%, and service orders up 16%. "International revenues from Industrial (ex NBCU) were $13.4 bln, up 23% representing 59% of total Industrial revenues. GE revenue for the Industrial segments accelerated in growth regions, including double-digit increases in India, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, Australia, Canada, and Latin America. GE Capital's portfolio transformation is ahead of schedule. Consumer and Commercial Lending and Leasing led with earnings growth of 57% and more than 100%, respectively. We continue to see strong demand for credit with CLL new volume originations at $10.8 bln for the quarter, up 33% from prior year... As previously communicated, Energy earnings and margins were down primarily as a result of pressure in the renewable sector. In addition, margins were impacted by the integration of Energy acquisitions. Indicators are pointing to a stronger second half in 2011 for Energy when we expect ~17% unit volume growth YoY. Integration of strategic Energy acquisitions is ahead of plan, further positioning Energy Infrastructure for growth in the second half of this year. Overall, Industrial earnings should improve in 2H11 and the cycle is expected to accelerate in 2012." Cash generated from Industrial operating activities totaled $4.4 bln in the first half of 2011, on track for full-year plan of $12-13 bln. At quarter-end, GE had $91 bln of consolidated cash. Year-to-date, the co has executed on $1 bln of stock buybacks and $2.7 billion of stock buybacks since restarting the program in 3Q10. The co plans to retire the preferred stock issued to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) in October 2011.

12:57 pm Advanced Micro Guides Third Quarter Revenue Below the Mid-point of Consensus (AMD)

Advanced Micro (AMD $7.60 +1.10) reported second quarter earnings of $0.09 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.08.

Revenues fell 4.8% year/year to $1.57 billion versus the $1.58 bln consensus. Gross margin was 46%.

For the third quarter, the company expects to see revenue growth of 8% to 12% quarter/quarter to approx. $1.70 billion to $1.76 billion versus the $1.70 billion Capital IQ

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