FOMC posts
FeedPosted Mar 13th 2011 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Economic Data, Federal Reserve
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets again this week to review economic conditions and set monetary policy. On whether the Fed should end quantitative easing or extend it, Atlanta Fed chairman Dennis Lockhart recently said that the Fed should remain flexible given the rising energy prices, which could be a sign of coming inflation. Either at this meeting or the next, the Fed could signal that interest rates will rise as a hedge against inflation.
Inflation will also be the focus when the Department of Labor releases the Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) this week. Back in January the core PPI (which excludes energy and food costs) had its biggest jump in two years, and the core CPI had its largest uptick in more than year, the second month in a row in which consumer prices jumped.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Inflation, the FOMC and Nike Earnings
Posted Feb 16th 2011 8:30AM by Jason Raznick (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the Bell, Earnings Reports, Deals, Dell (DELL), Family Dollar Stores (FDO), Genzyme (GENZ)

U.S. stock futures are higher Wednesday morning as Sanofi-Aventis (
SNY) agreed to purchase Genzyme (
GENZ) and Dell (
DELL) reported upbeat quarterly
earnings.
Futures on the
Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 30 points to 12,232 and S&P 500 futures rose 4.20 points to 1,330.50. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 5.50 points to 2,387.
U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.34% to close at 12,227.
Continue reading U.S. Stock Futures Up After Dell Reports Upbeat Earnings
Posted Nov 21st 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Campbell Soup (CPB), Tyson Foods'A' (TSN), Economic Data, Deere and Co (DE), Federal Reserve
Among the quarterly results scheduled for this holiday-shortened week, investors may be thankful for the earnings results from Tyson Foods (TSN). The Arkansas-based poultry and meat producer reported on its sustainability efforts and also was named McDonalds' (MCD) supplier of the year during its fiscal fourth quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings for that period to have doubled from a year ago to 56 cents per share.
Tyson is also expected to post revenue of $7.8 billion for the three months that ended in September, which is 7.4% more than in the same period of fiscal 2009. And the consensus estimate for the full year calls for earnings of $2.08 per share (+87.0%) and revenue of $28.7 billion (+7.3%). Tyson's earnings have been better than expected in recent quarters, beating consensus estimates by as much as 24 cents per share.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Tyson Foods, Analog Devices, Deere Serve Up Earnings
Posted Nov 4th 2010 9:30AM by Douglas S. Roberts (RSS feed)
Filed under: Economic Data, Headline News, Federal Reserve, Recession
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement indicating again that interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time and that proceeds of Treasury securities will continue to be re-invested into additional Treasury securities.
There will also be additional quantitative easing. This will take the form of the purchase of an additional "$600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion per month," according to the Fed's statement. This was well within the $500 billion to $1 trillion range expected by many economists and strategists. Thus, the current program appears to be largely discounted by the market.
Continue reading The Fed Decision: This is Not the End of Quantitative Easing!
Posted Oct 31st 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Starbucks (SBUX), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Economic Data, Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA), Stocks to Buy, Federal Reserve, Marathon Oil (MRO)
It will be a busy week. Republicans are poised to gain control of the House of Representatives and gain governorships in Tuesday's mid-term elections. Also, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce another round of quantitative easing Wednesday, following the FOMC meeting. Major retailers are scheduled to report October same-store sales Thursday, while the October unemployment rate, announced on Friday, is expected to remain at 9.6%.
Toyota's (TM) fiscal second-quarter results will be one of the highlights on the earnings front this week. After three periods of way underestimating Toyota's earnings, have the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters got it right this time? The stock sure could use a boost. Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) is in a similar situation; i.e., high expectations for this week's quarterly results but a stock in need of a boost. Marathon (MRO) and Starbucks (SBUX) are also expected to post strong earnings growth this week, but both stocks are riding high.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Election, QE2, Unemployment and More Earnings
Posted Sep 21st 2010 4:30PM by Douglas McIntyre (RSS feed)
Filed under: After the Bell, Major Movement, Nokia Corp. (NOK), ConAgra Foods (CAG), S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ

There was a blizzard of economic news today, but the only thing that really counted was the release of the notes from the The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee. The governors decided to keep rates near zero but do nothing beyond that to ease what is clearly a slowing economy. "Employers remain reluctant to add to payrolls. Housing starts are at a depressed level. Bank lending has continued to contract, but at a reduced rate in recent months."
Wall St. temporarily viewed this as news the Fed would ride to the rescue if the economy contracts. The markets traded up right after the 2:15pm announcement but sold off for the balance of the day. The financial world's faith in the Fed's future actions only lasted an hour. The markets ended nearly flat for the day.
Today's unofficial closing numbers:
Dow Jones 10,761.03 +7.41 (0.07%)
S&P 500 1,139.78 -2.93 (-0.26%)
Nasdaq 2,349.35 -6.48 (-0.28%)
Continue reading Closing Bell: The Fed Is All That Counts (CAG, NOK, VVUS)
Posted Sep 19th 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Adobe Systems (ADBE), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Economic Data, Housing
Housing steps into the spotlight again this coming week. The release of the National Association of Homebuilders Housing Market Index starts out the week on Monday morning. Then on Tuesday morning, look for housing starts data from August. Release of the July FHFA House Price Index is scheduled for Wednesday. And numbers for existing home sales and for new home sales in August are due out Thursday and Friday, respectively. Overall, the housing market is expected to have continued to lose momentum in August, but less dramatically than in July.
Also on the economic calendar this week: Tuesday's FOMC meeting on interest rates, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators Index for August on Thursday, initial jobless claims for last week, and durable goods orders data for August on Friday. No significant changes from the Fed are anticipated, but the leading economic indicators may rise a bit.
Continue reading The Week in Preview: Housing Data, Lennar's Earnings and More
Posted Aug 29th 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Economic Data
Investors nervous about the possibly stalled economic recovery -- or worse, the beginning of the latter phase of a double-dip recession -- were not pleased with last week's housing numbers. Things were perhaps ameliorated somewhat by durable goods order numbers and a revised GDP that weren't as bad as expected, but that didn't stop the Dow from dipping below 10,000 later in the week, before fighting its way back above the benchmark to end the week, thanks largely to Fed chair Bernanke's comments on Friday.
Though the end of August is usually quiet, this week lots more economic data are due out, including more housing numbers: The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for June on Tuesday, construction spending numbers for July on Wednesday, and NAR's pending home sales for July on Thursday. There's not expected to be much to get excited about in these numbers.
Continue reading The Week in Preview: Employment, Housing, Manufacturing, Earnings Expectations
Posted Aug 10th 2010 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Intel (INTC), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), MBIA Inc (MBI)

How you look at today's FOMC meeting is up to you, but the stock market bounced in reaction to the FOMC's decision to reinvest rolling maturities into more Treasury bonds. A higher oil forecast from the EIA also lent more credence to a sustained growth despite some tempering of those growth estimates.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow Jones 10,644.25 -54.50 (-0.51%)
S&P 500 1,121.08 -6.71 (-0.59%)
Nasdaq 2,277.17 -28.52 (-1.24%)
Continue reading Closing Bell: The Bears Found Some Bulls (ABK, JASO, MBI, NFLX, INTC)
Posted Aug 10th 2010 3:30PM by Douglas S. Roberts (RSS feed)
Filed under: Market Matters, Economic Data, Headline News, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement indicating again that interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time and that proceeds from agency debt and agency mortgage–backed and Treasury securities will be re-invested into Treasury securities. Thomas Hoenig dissented against the FOMC statement and wants a tighter monetary policy.
The FOMC mentioned the economic improvement continuing albeit at a reduced pace but indicated that it was a mixed picture with high unemployment and depressed housing. It also mentioned that "bank lending has continued to contract."
Continue reading The Fed Decision: Quantitative Easing Continues!
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