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Closing Bell: Not all earnings created equal (GOOG, BAC, GE, AMD, PMTI, JNJ)

Posted Oct 16th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Google (GOOG), General Electric (GE), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Advanced Micro Dev (AMD), Bank of America (BAC)

Today's earnings were deemed a disappointment despite some bottom-line comfort here. A weaker University of Michigan Consumer Survey report kept the DJIA muted, and whether we'd close above or under the 10,000 mark was something that wasn't known until the final hour of trading.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,996.21 -66.73 (-0.66%)
S&P 500 1,087.71 -8.85 (-0.81%)
Nasdaq 2,156.80 -16.49 (-0.76%)

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Continue reading Closing Bell: Not all earnings created equal (GOOG, BAC, GE, AMD, PMTI, JNJ)

Consumer sentiment down, according to everyone

Posted Jul 10th 2009 5:20PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Recession, Financial Crisis

There are two competing positions on consumer sentiment right now. One is that it turned south last week, as people worried about their jobs – always a bad sign for spending. The other is that consumer sentiment didn't crap out in July: it fizzled in May. So, it's not a question of whether consumers aren't confident in the U.S. economic machine, it's just a matter of when the collective mood changed.

The July camp is set up around the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, which makes now the weakest point for consumer sentiment since March. Those who favor May look to domestic demand for foreign goods, which went soft two months ago, bringing the monthly trade deficit to its narrowest since 1999. The U.S. trade gap unexpectedly tightened to $26 billion in May, with exports up 1.6% and imports down 0.6%, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Continue reading Consumer sentiment down, according to everyone

Closing Bell: Bears are better hunters than bulls

Posted Mar 28th 2008 5:10PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)

Today was an interesting day when you consider that the overall tone has gone back to the bears' favor and a sell strength trading mentality is winning. The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending rose a slight +0.1% last month (which was in-line with economist surveys) but personal income rose to +0.5% in February, above the +0.3% rise expected. They must be paying more interest on credit cards or paying down debt.

Elsewhere, the federal Reserve noted it would auction another $100 Billion in securities to cash strapped banks in April. The University of Michigan released its preliminary consumer sentiment index for March and it had fallen to 69.5 in March from from 70.8 in February. Here are the unofficial closing averages on the US stock index levels:
  • DJIA 12,216.57 (-85.89; -0.70%)
  • S&P500 1,315.21(-10.45; -0.79%)
  • NASDAQ 2,261.18 (-19.65; -0.86%)
  • 10-Yr-TBond 3.466% (-0.068%)
  • 52-WEEK LOWS
Apollo Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) was a disaster today. The online educator fell a sharp 26.8% to $41.21 after the company missed earnings by a mile with a $32 million loss in the quarter.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Bears are better hunters than bulls

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+30.6910,464.40
NASDAQ+6.872,176.05
S&P 500+4.981,110.63

Last updated: November 26, 2009: 05:18 PM

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