Today was a very light event day outside of two DJIA components reporting earnings. We saw another instance where stocks held on to gains and did not sell the news too bad. It looks like the indexes actually have made it six straight weeks up now. Here are today's closing bell levels:
DJIA: 8,131.33
S&P500: 869.57
NASDAQ: 1,673.07
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) posted a net profit at $1.59 billion on items and net loss came to -$0.18 EPS after converting $12.5 billion in convertible preferred stock. Revenues for the quarter were $24.79 billion. Estimates were -$0.34 EPS and $21.94 billion in revenues. Shares were down 6% at $3.76 late in the day.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) posted a 35% drop in earnings, but the numbers did come in ahead of estimates by 5 cents per share. Even its financial operations posted that profit of more than $1 billion. Shares were up 2% at $12.53 late in the day.
DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) rose sharply after the shipper had two bits of good news. It received an upgrade from an analyst at Oppenheimer, who raised the rating to an "Outperform" in its coverage this morning. The firm also raised $500 million in capital. Shares were up a whopping 29% at $7.17 late in the day.
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) has said that its Madden Football franchise will continue. There had been some concerns that the announcement of Madden's retirement from the NFL would cause a brand change. Shares were down almost 2% at $18.68 late in the day.
Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) said that earnings were a tad light and its losses were wider than before. The loss reported was -$0.14 EPS vs. -$0.13 estimates. Barbie sales were even down 5%. Shares were up 14% at $14.87 late in the day as this was "good enough."
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was up 1% at $393.79 late in the trading day after the company beat earnings last night. There were some issues, and that is why this was off of the $410.00 highs from immediately after the report in after-hours trading yesterday.
Retailers can't wait for Black Friday, open Thursday
Tiffany's serves up solid quarterly earnings
Cramer on BloggingStocks: This bullish retail story looks like a good fit 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-17-2009 @ 11:45PM
Jerry said...
So, earnings season is better than the pundits expected. No surprise.
Regarding Oppenheimer's raising a stock to "outperform" - I call on Oppenheimer to "perform" and redeem the money for auction rate securities they sold to clients as "cash" over a year ago. Nearly all of Oppenheimer's competitors have redeemed, the Massachusetts Secret of State's office filed a formal complaining stating that Opco executives knew the market was tanking and kept selling the stuff to clients...do the right thing for once, Oppenheimer.
4-18-2009 @ 9:03AM
Eddie said...
I wonder if the Oppenheimer analyst who upgraded DryShips is the same analyst who analyzed auction rate securities for them? Oppenheimer analyzed my needs and concluded that ARS would be a better savings vehicle for me then their Advantage Liquid Primary Money Market Fund. They both had the same risk and I would make a little more interest which was tax free. I was told auction rate securities were "an accommodation for their good clients and high net worth investors." They never mentioned that they make no money if I kept my savings in their MMF and they make lots of money by me agreeing to this "accommodation." Bottom line is you cannot trust anything Oppenheimer tells you. If they upgrade a stock it's most likely because they are looking to sell it. If they make a recommendation to a customer it's because there's something in it for them. If it turns out to be good for the customer, they got lucky.