U.S. stock futures are higher Wednesday morning, a day after markets rallied around 2.4% due to declining oil prices. But today, ADP monthly employment data will be released, as well as weekly oil inventories data. Investors will digest the numbers and the slew of earnings due for release.
Already reported this morning (to name a few):
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) said its second-quarter profit rose 8% as cable TV rates rose and consumers ordered more digital and premium services. While the results fell short of Wall Street's forecast, CMCSA shares are trading mildly higher.
Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) said its second-quarter profit more than doubled due to increased production and higher steel prices. It also gave an upbeat outlook for third quarter. The company outperformed consensus by about 20% at the revenue. MT shares, which have already close 7% higher Tuesday, are trading up another 6% in premarket action.
Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) shares are crashing, trading 11% lower in premarket action after the company reported quarterly profit that was above market estimates, but revenue missed expectations and 2008 outlook was cut due to macroeconomic conditions and high fuel prices that have already impacted growth.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) shares are over 1.7% lower in premarket trading after reporting a second-quarter loss as declining spending by smaller businesses and retail customers hurt sales.
Siemens (NYSE: SI) reported that "third quarter net profit fell 31% due to a one-time gain a year earlier, but order intake and revenue rose, beating expectations and showing the industrial conglomerate's resilience so far to the economic downturn." SI shares are 3.9% higher in premarket trading.
Corning (NYSE: GLW) shares are down over 2% in premarket trading after reporting inline earnings per share, but revenue slightly below estimates.
IAC/InterActive (NASDAQ: IACI) said it swung to a second-quarter loss, hurt by a $300 million charge in its Cornerstone Brands business. Adjusted earnings were 35 cents per share as revenue rose 7% to $1.6 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 31 cents per share on $1.6 billion in sales.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Nova Chemical, Tomkins Plc and Office Max were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Citigroup downgraded shares of Nova Chemical (NYSE: NCX) to Sell from Hold as they believe the ethylene cycle is trending downward due to economic uncertainty. Citigroup lowered their target to $21 and $25 and added the stock to the Top Picks Live List as a Sell.
Goldman cut Tomkins Plc (NYSE: TKS) to Sell from Neutral as they believe the slowing economy could impact sales.
Piper downgraded shares of OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) to Neutral from Buy following the negative pre-announcement by competitor Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) on concerns of deteriorating industry fundamentals. Piper lowered their target on OfficeMax to $11 from $22.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
National City (NYSE: NCC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill.
Danaher (NYSE: DHR) was removed from Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ: LINTA) was lowered to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Office Depot is going to announce its second quarter numbers later this month, and investors got a better picture of just what to expect this morning after the company stated that it is now forecasting a 10% drop in its same-store sales for the quarter, citing the slowing American economy as the main reason.
The company also warned it expects the remainder of the year to remain difficult. While the retailer believes that sales trends should improve slightly, it is remaining pessimistic. Margins for the quarter, it says, have declined by about 200 basis points than what it had previously anticipated. Even before today's revision, the company had estimated about 200 to 250 basis point decline in its margins. Looking at the rest of the year, the company thinks that its margins should increase sequentially in both Q3 and Q4.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is recently trading at $8.86 in pre-open trading, below its close of $10.41.
ODP announced Q2 same-store sales fell nearly 10% versus the prior year. ODP will announce Q2 EPS on July 30. ODP expects its profit margins to improve sequentially in the third and fourth quarter.
ODP July option implied volatility is at 74, August is at 69; above its 26-week average of 54 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com
Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) said Tuesday it would cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2% of its global work force of 400,000 people. Most of the cuts would be administrative jobs. Siemens is attempting to cut nearly $2 billion in costs by 2010 as a slowing economy is affecting its business.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) shares are sinking 13.5% in premarket trading after the office-supplies retailer said that "pressure from weakening business conditions" has hurt second-quarter sales, and forecast a nearly 10% drop in second-quarter North American same-store retail sales.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) shares are declining 1.5% and 2.2% respectively in premarket trading despite reporting strong first-half sales in China, where the auto market is booming. GM said sales of its brands rose 12.7%, and Ford said its sales rose 21%.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says lots of companies now thrive with crude up here.
Oil's not a tax on everything -- it's a tax on the consumer. That's what I come down to when I see the charts this weekend and ponder what's happening in so much of industrial America.
Company after company that I examine -- the new techs, as I call them -- actually benefit from higher oil prices. Or they can pass them on with ease, because of the worldwide demand being so strong.
Take all of the companies involved with making a Boeing (NYSE: BA) (Cramer's Take): Boeing itself, Alcoa (NYSE: AA) (Cramer's Take), Honeywell (NYSE: HON) (Cramer's Take) and Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP) (Cramer's Take) being good examples. Each of these is necessary because the new Dreamliner burns lots less fuel, and with fuel the biggest airline cost, it stands to reason that higher energy prices make the plane more desirable even at a higher price point.
Shares of office supply retailer Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) have been surging in the premarket despite the fact that company reported a big fall in its first-quarter profit. However, Office Depot was able to report earnings per share that topped analysts' forecasts, giving a lift to its shares.
The retailer reported that quarterly profit plunged 55% to $68.8 million, or 25 cents a share, as the housing meltdown brought deep declines for the company's sales in Florida and California. These numbers are down from $153.8 million, or 55 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Office Depot's earnings would have come at 29 cents a share. Analysts' forecasts (which typically exclude one time items) were for 22 cents per share.
Looking at revenue, Office Depot saw a drop of 3.2% to $3.96 billion, as the retailer faced North American sales declines. Analysts predicted a higher revenue of $4.07 billion for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is urging shareholders to reject the efforts of Levitt Corp. (NYSE: LEV) and Woodbridge Equity Fund to elect two of their nominees to the company's board of directors at the company's April 23rd annual meeting. The investors, who own about 1% of the company, are seeking to replace the company's current CEO and chairman and its former CEO and chairman; they have nominated the company's former COO and the former president of Staples (NYSE: SPLS) to replace them.
In a press release, the company said that it "believes that removing two of the most experienced retailing executives from the Office Depot Board would be highly disruptive, and could destabilize the Company and damage prospects for a successful turnaround. The Board has a strong long-range plan that is in the process of being implemented under difficult macroeconomic conditions."
As with many situations like this, the chart tells the story. Over the past 10 years, Office Depot has lost nearly 50% of its value while Staples has more than doubled in value. Obviously the current strategy is a failure, and the "experienced retailing executives" have destroyed billions of dollars in shareholder value. They might as well give someone else a shot and, if these directors should be opposed, the opposition shouldn't come from a board of directors with a horrendous track record.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit slid 85% to $18.8 million, or 7 cents per share as sales fell 3% in North America. Adjusted earnings, though, were 10 cents per share compared with 51 cents per share and still much lower than expectations of 17 cents per share.
CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) says its profit fell 14.6% in the fourth quarter to $286.2 million or 42 cents per share, as its revenue slipped 3% to $3.76 billion. Adjusted per-share earnings, however, rose to 54 cents from 53 cents due share repurchases, beating analysts' estimates of 52 cents.
Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) says a surge in subscriber numbers to 8.3 million (2.3 million more than a year ago) and lower costs helped narrow its fourth-quarter loss to $166.2 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with a loss of $245.6 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts had expected 13 cents per share according to Thomson Financials. Revenue grew 29% to $249.8 million. While CEO Karmazin mentioned the merger with rival XM Satellite (NASDAQ: XMSR), there is no decision from the DOJ yet.
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) today introduced Yahoo! Buzz, which "measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs around the Web. Top stories are then given primary editorial consideration for feature placement on Yahoo.com." If it's anything like Yahoo! Answers, this could be an interesting service.
Retailers Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) to report Q4 earnings. Lowe's will hold its conference call at 9:00am, Nordstrom will hold its conference call at 4:30pm.
Tuesday, February 26
Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
FCC to hold Open Commission Meeting at 9:30am.
Macy's to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.
Wednesday, February 27
FDA to hold Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee Meeting at 8:00am.
BP plc (NYSE:BP) to hold business update at 9:00am.
Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 2:00pm.
Vale (NYSE:RIO) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 10:00am.
PDUFA Date for Jazz Pharma (NASDAQ:JAZZ) and Solvay Pharma's (SVYSY) Luvox CR for treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Seaosnal Affective Disorder.
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks: 
U.S. stock futures are higher Wednesday morning, a day after markets rallied around 2.4% due to declining oil prices. But today, ADP monthly employment data will be released, as well as weekly oil inventories data. Investors will digest the numbers and the slew of earnings due for release.
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Office Depot
Here are some highlights from this past week's 
Shares of office supply retailer 
In a press release, the company said that it "believes that removing two of the most experienced retailing executives from the Office Depot Board would be highly disruptive, and could destabilize the Company and damage prospects for a successful turnaround. The Board has a strong long-range plan that is in the process of being implemented under difficult macroeconomic conditions."
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