U.S. stock futures were lower Tuesday morning as oil prices continued to decline, with crude falling below $120 a barrel on demand concerns due to the economic slowdown in the U.S. Commodities in general have been declining. Also today, the Federal Reserve will announce its decision regarding interest rates and it is widely expected they will remain unchanged. Similarly, the Fed's outlook statement about outlook and focus may also remain largely the same according to expectations. Meanwhile, overseas, both the ECB and BoE are expected to leave rates unchanged. One of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s largest shareholders, Capital Research Global Investors, had asked to review the vote in last week's re-election of the Internet giant's board. Specifically, I guess, it was surprising the vote showed strong support -- 85% -- for CEO Jerry Yang. There's no sense dancing around this issue; basically the shareholder implies suspicions of wrongdoings (or really really incompetent tallying of votes).
Bloomberg reports that analysts now expect Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) to report net losses through the first quarter of 2009 as home-loan delinquencies rise to the highest on record. The the biggest U.S. mortgage-finance companies report tomorrow and according to estimates will show a loss of 74 cents and 60 cents per share respectively. The losses may be greater than expected as we've seen before analysts underestimating the credit losses. It will not be pretty.
Reporting today:
Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP) is scheduled to report earnings before the opening bell with analysts expecting $1.16 earnings per share, according to First Call. However, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) have already reported. Procter beat per share earnings estimates by 2 cents, managing better results than rival Unilever, which had recently also reported earnings. PG's net jumped 33%. However, ADM's fourth quarter profit plunged 61% and per share results came below estimates (excluding items) at 58 cents per share vs. estimates of 67 cents per share.
After the close, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is due to report and analysts expect earnings of 39 cents per share. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) will also report then and analysts expect earnings of 34 cents per share.
Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), which has recently announced the long overdue scheduled departure of CEO Russo and Chairman Tchuruk, has kicked off a global hunt for new leadership this week. The Wall Street Journal said that one exec had already turned the company down, former BT Group PLC boss Ben Verwaayen. While Qualcomm's Jha seems to be happy for the opportunity to go to struggling Motorola, at least the company has a plan in place. Troubled Alcatel, though, might find it more difficult to attract good talent.
According to Ars Technica, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s CEO Steve Jobs admitted in an internal e-mail sent to employees Monday that MobileMe was launched too early and "not up to Apple's standards." "It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store," he says. Considering all the complaints, no doubt many would agree with him.
Also, Fourbucks, I mean, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) said it will now offer its morning customers any iced grande beverage for $2 after 2 p.m. This is the coffee chain's attempt to boost afternoon traffic.
Noted analyst calls this morning:
UBS upgraded AIG (NYSE: AIG) from Neutral to Buy.
Credit Suisse downgraded Liz Claiborne (NYSE: LIZ) from Outperform to Neutral.
UBS initiated Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) with Buy and $195 target price.
The week in preview: Earnings from Walmart, Macy's, and other retailers
Six top trades for the rest of 2009
Comfort Zone Investing: Buffett buys Burlington
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-05-2008 @ 12:00PM
Stefan said...
Hi,
I want to provide you with information regarding Cisco Systems, and its possible financial misstatements. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating this case (SEC File HO1282826).
I would be careful with further investments, completly independent from their FY results.
Sincerly
Stefan
8-12-2008 @ 5:31AM
Sefran said...
It seems you're right!
I tried to post a question regarding Cisco Systems, and its possible financial misstatements on their website (http://www.cisco.com, http://newsroom.cisco.com), but they didn't published it nor I became an answer. Currently the Journalists' groups warns of Olypics censorship. But Cisco did the same. They didn't posted my comment.
That's the reason why I'm pretty sure that the stuff you wrote is right. In my humble opinion there must be something wrong.
What does it mean? As soon as they improve their results in that way, they cheated their shareholder. I wanna see how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will react.
Who gave you the information regarding the SEC File HO1282826. Currently this information are availible in different blogs and websites.