Vandaag donderdag 11 maart kmen er enkele belangrijke economische cijfers, naast de wekelijkse initial claims krijgen we de February Retail Sales. Nabeurs komt Oracle (ORCL) met de cijfers over zijn Q3.
- 18:28 ET Wednesday After Hours : prices levels vs. 4 pm ET: Selling remains the theme of the day as the S&P futures, at 1120, are 4 points below fair value and the Nasdaq 100 futures, at 1415, are 3 points below fair value. The major indices move to new lows for the year has left buyers increasingly hesitant to move into stocks. The after hours' announcements have been pretty slim, and none have been influential in changing the direction of trading.
- Leapfrog -32%: -Designer of educational products warns for Q1 (Mar), saying it sees revenues of $66-72 mln and a loss of $0.18-0.22 per share versus the Reuters Research consensus estimates of $87 mln and ($0.06), respectively; This follows after the company missed by a penny in its Q4 (Dec) report on Feb 10.
- Tech Data +2%: - Distributor of IT products blows past the Q4 (Jan) EPS market expectation by $0.13; Puts Q1 (Apr) EPS at $0.45-0.50 (consensus of $0.46) and revenues at $4.5-4.6 bln (consensus of $4.38 bln); Management comments 'we remain encouraged by the improving market demand conditions that characterize our industry'
- Martek Biosciences -5%: - Mid-cap biotech company misses the Reuters Research consensus EPS estimate by a penny in its Q1 (Jan) report; Management noted the numbers reflect last Sept's Italian power outage; Stock has more than tripled in the past year
- 15:28 ET Bond Market Summary : The treasuries spent the day waiting for an auction or a breakout, and got little on the auction and didn't have the nerve to go after a breakout. The trade numbers, although negative, offered only a brief bump in the market. The 5-year auction's most closely- watched components essentially cancelled each other out, with the demand less than anticipated and the indirect bidder participation a strong 44.2%. The strength is assumed to be driven by Asian central banks and has become the headline on the auctions. The market spent the latter part of the day making aborted pushes toward a key level, 3.68%, and then appeared to give up, moving back to 3.73% after a couple of taps at 3.699%. Traders are expecting the mortgage players to show up for tomorrow's re-opened 10-year auction, but are not as highly expectant on the indirect participation. The dollar had a nice run against the euro-zone currencies, and saw rather restrained trade with the yen. The yen's new trick, hammering the dollar at 1:00 PM and then recovering via intervention, didn't make a showing today, although there was much speculation as to what had driven that stunt over the past 2 days. Tomorrow offers import, retail sales, and initial claims data, which could jolt treasuries out of their stupor if surprising. Tens are currently +01/32nds yielding 3.717%; twos and threes are -01/32nds yielding 1.504% and 1.903% respectively; fives and thirties are unchanged yielding 2.656% and 4.668%.
- 11:11 ET Floor Talk: Hearing institutions showing strong interest in Semis today on view group due for a bounce :
- 09:38 ET DOW: Recent decline creates buying opportunity 40.82 -0.09: Goldman Sachs believes 10% drop in the past 5 days creates a buying opportunity. According to the firm, Dow Chemical has been the centerpiece of their 'Let's Get Cyclical' thesis, and they don't think the run has ended. Goldman's analysis of the supply-demand balances suggests mid-cycle profitability by end-2004, which they believe should coincide with a $50 level for the stock, equivalent to a typical 30% premium to fair value estimate of $39. All in all, they are advising investors to take advantage of the recent weakness to add to positions.
- 09:19 ET CSCO: Recent weakness a potential negative indicator for sector 22.12: CIBC suggests that Cisco's (CSCO) recent underperformance vs. the S&P is a potential negative indicator for the sector's overall macro outlook. If this persists, they expect rotation within the sector away from more speculative names. According to the firm, this may have recently begun. CIBC notes that broader-market investors are already rotating away from the sector - selling Cisco because its the only name they likely own. In the past, this has sparked a rotation within the sector. Investors have generally sold more speculative names and sought safety in Cisco. Speculative names did extremely well over the last 6 months due to increasing optimism about a spending recovery. With a more stable, but arguably more mixed macro outlook now, there seems to be less enthusiasm about future tech spending - as evidenced by macro-level investors selling out of Cisco.
- 08:50 ET Gold Oil and Dollar Summary : The Dollar is seeing strength against the Euro (1.2271), but is slightly lower versus the Yen (111.07) this morning...Gold is lower near 401 after making a small run yesterday to 406. Silver remains in the spotlight as it trades above its 6-year highs near 7.15. According to Reuters, "with weak demand for jewelry and industry, silver is enjoying the benefits of speculative buying against gold in a 'ratio play' on the idea that silver is cheap compared with gold." Platinum also gains interest as it jumps to a new 24-year high at 909.50 an ounce. The metal is highly used by automakers as well as in jewelry...Oil (36.28) is edging higher ahead of today's US inventory data. Most analysts/traders are expecting a decline in petro supplies as a result of geo-political unrest with Venezuela and evidence suggesting OPEC will announce a cut in production at its March 31 meeting,
Guy Boscart