DOW posts
FeedPosted Feb 25th 2010 4:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Economic Data, DJIA

It isn't hard to figure what's been weighing on the Dow recently. True, the soap opera-like drama being played out in Europe regarding how to point Greece toward fiscal solvency has been on traders' minds, but the big mood changer on Wall Street concerns U.S. unemployment and health of the nation's industrial sector.
Two, consecutive, unexpected increases in initial jobless claims -- they jumped 22,000 this week
to 496,000 -- have given the market's bears some evidence to argue that a double-dip recession is not entirely beyond the realm of possibility.
Continue reading Two Data Points Disappoint, and the Dow Bears Growl
Posted Jan 31st 2010 12:10PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Dow Chemical (DOW), MetLife Inc. (MET)
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for life insurance giant MetLife Inc. (MET) to report that its earnings rose 80.0% from a year ago to $0.95 per share for the three months that ended in December. Revenue, however, is expected to total $12.6 billion, which is down 10.1% from a year ago, during a fourth quarter in which it offered guidance and declared a quarterly dividend. The analysts' forecast for the full year calls for earnings of $2.89 per share (-25.7%) on $48.3 billion in revenue (-5.3%). This New York-based insurer's earnings results have been better than expected in three of the past four quarters, beating estimates by as much as 20 cents per share.
MetLife's long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.7%, which is better than that of competitor Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), and its earnings multiple is 8.8x. The First Call consensus recommendation has been to buy MET for more than 90 days, despite a recent downgrade of the stock. The mean price target is $42.87. Shares have been trading between $32.00 and $40.00 since August and closed the week at $35.32.
Continue reading The Week in Preview: MetLife, BP, MasterCard, Dow Chemical, Toyota Earnings
Posted Jan 20th 2010 11:00AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, International Business Machines (IBM), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Dow Chemical (DOW), Analyst Initiations
Analyst Upgrades
- Canaccord upgraded IBM (IBM) to buy from hold, citing the better-than-expected Q4 report, an ongoing economic recovery and higher IT budgets. The firm raised its target to $150 from $130.
- Citigroup upgraded Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) to buy from hold to reflect strength in the oilseed processing market and a positive inflection in ethanol profitability. The firm raised its target on shares to $37 from $33.
- FBR Capital upgraded Tesco (TESO) to outperform from market perform on expectations the company's top drive orders will accelerate in the coming quarters. The firm raised its target price on shares to $18.
- CBS (CBS) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
- HSBC Holdings (HBC) was upgraded to buy from hold at RBS.
- Essex Property Trust (ESS) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, Downgrades and Initiations: ADM, CBS, CPO, DOW, DD, IBM, KAR, TSCO ...
Posted Jan 6th 2010 11:20AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, 3M Corporation (MMM), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Dow Chemical (DOW), Analyst Initiations, AOL (AOL)
Analyst Upgrades
- Goldman upgraded 3M Company (MMM) to conviction buy from buy, citing positive global industrial data, underappreciated organic growth and earnings momentum, among other reasons. The firm raised its target to $105 from $100.
- Citigroup upgraded Manpower (MAN) to buy from hold to reflect improvements in the temporary employment sector. The firm raised its target price on shares to $69 from $61.
- Baird upgraded Cerner (CERN) to outperform from neutral and raised its target to $104 from $89 based on Q4 bookings momentum, positive newsflow and reasonable valuation.
- Dow Chemical (DOW) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
- Magna International (MGA) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
Continue reading Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades and Initiations: AOL, DOW, KSS, LMT, MAN, MMM, SONC ...
Posted Dec 30th 2009 11:40AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Pfizer (PFE)
Late Tuesday, pharmaceutical firm Pfizer (PFE) announced the discontinuation of A4021016, a Phase 3 trial that was examining the effects of figitumumab. Figitumumab is an investigational compound that is used as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced non-adenocarcinoma non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The study was terminated because it met predefined boundaries for early termination. The Data Safety Monitoring Committee (DSMC) found that the addition of figitumumab to paclitaxel plus carboplatin would be unlikely to meet the primary endpoint of the study.
Continue reading Pfizer Discontinues Study of Cancer Drug
Posted Oct 30th 2009 6:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Indices, Economic Data

Now that the U.S. economy is growing -- GDP grew at a 3.5% annualized rate in Q3, according to
U.S. Commerce Department data, one key question for investors large and small is:
Is the U.S. economic expansion sustainable? Investors can immerse themselves in data on consumer spending, retail sales, new home sales, auto sales, and factory output etc., and all of those provide clues, no question. But if you're time-pressed and you want one metric to gauge the U.S. economy's likely health 6-9 months from now, monitor:
monthly non-farm payrolls, as tallied by the U.S. Labor Department. I.E., how many jobs the U.S. economy lost or created in the previous month.
Continue reading Want to know where the Dow is headed? Keep an eye on job growth
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 10:00AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: 3M Corporation (MMM), S and P 500, DJIA, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that as long as we're trapped in a commoditized stock market, use the futures to go bargain-hunting.
What if individual stocks want to go up, but the market wants to go down? Don't laugh. In 1982, when The Kansas City Board of Trade started trading Value Line futures (before there were S&P futures), we used to kick around in securities classes what would happen if eventually stocks became so commoditized that individual companies couldn't be removed from the gravitational pull.
For example, we know today looks like a terrible day, with Europe down horribly and our futures real soggy. But then we look and see that J. Crew (NYSE: JCG) (Cramer's Take), one of the best retailers, is not just saying that the fall season is good; it is saying it is blowout beyond imagination. The big Dow stock 3M (NYSE: MMM) (Cramer's Take) is not just saying that things are getting better; it is showing that business is very strong. The monster insurer and fellow Dow stock Travelers (NYSE: TRV) (Cramer's Take) is boosting the dividend and showing you how a responsible financial can behave.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Great stocks at better prices
Posted Oct 14th 2009 4:15PM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Good news, Industry, Indices, Market Matters, Personal Finance, DJIA, Technology, NASDAQ
Spurred on by strong earnings from JP Morgan Chase & Company and Intel, the Dow punched through the 10,000 mark today.
The Dow 10,000 is a psychological level. Very often traders pay attention to round numbers like 10,000. Breaking through often kicks off buy stops and that is an added push to the move. Traders also see strong earnings by two giant companies as a positive for the market and often follow along with the momentum.
Recapping, the market was last at 10,000 back in October when it broke that mark on the downside. The index is down 29.4% from its 2007 peak of 14,164.53.
Do you believe that the market will continue to move higher?
Posted Oct 7th 2009 6:30PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major Movement, Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Good news, Competitive Strategy, Employees, Market Matters, Money and Finance Today, Alcoa Inc (AA), DJIA, Recession
Alcoa (NYSE:
AA) surprised the market this afternoon by posting its
first quarterly profit of the year.
The company credited recent cost cutting measures as the main reason for its profit of $77 million during the quarter (75.8% lower than the same period last year), or 4 cents per share excluding certain items. This was a nice surprise to Wall Street, which had expected to see the company show a loss for the quarter of 9 cents per share.
Continue reading Alcoa posts surprising third quarter profit
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 3:00PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), iPhone, Technology
A new stock ticker tool for the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone may not have you hoping for a plunge, but at least it takes the sting out a little bit. This new application pairs strippers with tickers, and as the numbers tick down, items of clothing find their way to the floor. There's a different girl for each of the major indices, providing a bit of spice to international financial markets. So, whether you follow the DAX or the Dow, you won't be the only person losing his shirt when the market tanks.
Doubtless, some have no interest in watching svelte stripping women illustrate their loss of fortune. For this crowd, male strippers are available. Whether you lean toward boys or girls, whatever your sex and orientation, sometimes a helpful hottie is exactly what you need to soothe your spirit.
Continue reading iPhone app makes stock market rally disappointing
Posted Sep 17th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), Citigroup Inc. (C), AMR Corp (AMR)

The recession is over according to Ben Bernanke. Inflation is staying tame. And the Fed just said we all
saw our wealth grow in Q2. Yet today the markets gave back. Based upon many key tech shares
hitting 52-week highs and then selling off, this was just a day of traders finally locking in some handy trading profits. The DJIA stayed up for much of the day, but the rest of the key indexes came well off of highs and many went negative. This
call for DJIA 10,000 still seems much more likely even if the market showed that not every index has to rise every day.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 9,784.22 -7.49 (-0.08%)
S&P 500 1,065.49 -3.27 (-0.31%)
Nasdaq 2,126.75 -6.40 (-0.30%)
Top Trader Alerts Top Analyst Upgrades Top Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: An almost disappointment, sort of... (DNDN, AAPL, GE, C, AMR)
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