Hang Seng down 1% could weight as German moves to put The ban on naked short sales of euro-denominated government bonds, credit default swaps based on those bonds, and shares in Germany's 10 leading financial institutions was announced after European markets closed on Tuesday.
- Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT:$54.39,$1.67, +3.17%) posted quarterly results that beat analysts' estimates, but executives at the retailer said that second quarter results could fall short of expectations. they reported earnings of $3.32 billion, or $0.88 a share, for the fiscal first quarter compared with $3.03 billion, or $0.77 a share in the same period a year ago. Waiting for this one to pullback for the short.
- Verisign Inc (VRSN:$27.67,00$0.83,003.09%) recently approached some companies to see if they want to buy its security business, which helps online merchants encrypt payment card data, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
- K Swiss (KSWS:$12.58,00$1.03,008.92%) is up 9.5%, or $1.10, to $12.65UPGRADE: K-Swiss (KSWS) upgraded by B. Riley from Neutral to Buy (05/18 10:25 AM). Also signed a new tennis player to endorsement deal.
- Coinstar (CSTR:$55.01,00$-0.65,00-1.17%) is heading for a close with moderate losses, down 1.36%, after RBC Capital downgraded the stock largely on valuation this morning and sent it on a roller coaster ride in and out of the red.
- GAPPERS REPORT
- LGL Group (LGL:$12.2200,$4.0200,49.02%) is up after the company said late Monday Q1 sales were $10.7 million, up 41.9% from a year ago. It earned $0.47 per share, up from a loss a year earlier.
- (VVUS:$13.20,00$0.73,005.85%), Qnexa to have presentation on CNBC tonight.
- Donaldson Co. (DCI:$43.37,00$-0.83,00-1.88%) increased its guidance for the year based on its preliminary third-quarter results.
- Hewlett Packard (HPQ:$46.79,00$-0.73,00-1.54%) gained after beating with Q2 results and boosting its FY outlook, while offering a Q3 view that's in line to below the Street view.Shorts may be interest in that 48.10-48.20 ceiling. While longs may find 47.60 of interest, a strong evening floor.
- Photronics (PLAB:$4.91,00$-0.30,00-5.76%) : Limited evening activity confined this issue to between 4.91 and 5.40. The most robust buy volume pushed in at 4.94-4.91, an area likely for tomorrow's open. Its posting reversal moves in 13 of the last 22 quarters that I've tracked. Any revisit to the 5.40 evening top may present a desirable short entry point for early Wednesday.
- ChipMos Technologies (IMOS:$1.65close) shares jumped more than 10% in after-hours trading after it announced first-quarter net income ex-items of $0.11 per share, a swing to profit from the $0.76 per share loss a year earlier. Thomson Reuters does not provide a survey. Price: 1.83after hours, Change: +0.18, Percent Change: +10.91.
- Culp Inc. (CFI:$13.19,00$0.13,001.00%) boosted its outlook for Q4 sales, which it now sees rising 20% from the same period a year ago. The company had seen sales growth of 12%-16% for the quarter.
- MARKET CHATTER & DEALS OF THE DAY.
- VeriSign Inc. (VRSN:$28.23,00$1.39,005.18%) was reported Tuesday to be nearing a sale of its authentication unit to Symantec Corp. (SYMC:$15.95,00$-0.33,00-2.03%) , a transaction that would shed a business that's accounted for roughly 40% of VeriSign's (VRSN:$28.23,00$1.39,005.18%) revenue, while leaving it reliant upon an Internet domain-naming service that's drawn unwanted scrutiny.
- Yahoo (YHOO:$16.03,00$-0.24,00-1.48%) said it has agreed to acquire the user-generated publishing company Associated Content to add more pages to attract advertisers.
- Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD:$9.46,00$1.28,0015.65%) swung to a first-quarter profit as the semiconductor company posted surging revenue on higher shipments and an increase in margins. Spreadtrum's (SPRD:$9.46,00$1.28,0015.65%) results easily topped expectations and the company issued a strong revenue outlook for the current quarter. Needham Research upgraded its stock-investment rating on the company Tuesday to hold from underperform, saying market share gains appear sustainable in the intermediate term. Shares rose 16% to $9.46.
- Life insurance distributor National Financial Partners Corp (NFP:$14.03,00$-0.91,00-6.09%) reversed a year-ago loss and reported quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates, helped by lower expenses.
HPQ: 46 to 48.16
PLAB: 4.91 to 5.40
IMOS: 4.78 to 1.93
CFI: 13.61 to 13.63
WSTL: 1.42 to 1.59
ADI: 27.54 to 28.55
SYMC: 15.85 to 16.29
DOWNSIDE MOVERS:
YHOO: 15.80 to 16.26
VRSN: 26.83 to 28.27
Political Agenda:
- The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has even put some numbers to the trade off. For every 10% drop in the value of the euro, sustained over 12 months, the Euro Zone economies pick up 1 percentage point in growth at a cost of about 0.5 percentage points in higher inflation.That’s a huge inducement to let the euro fall some more in an economic bloc that’s forecast to grow by just 1% in 2010 and only 1.4% in 2011.The 14% decline in the euro over the last 12 months would add 1 percentage point to that anemic growth. A further 10% drop would bring the gain to 2 percentage points.And more economic growth means higher tax revenues, which will make it easier for countries to reduce their budget deficits to the European Monetary Union’s target of 3% without the kind of draconian cuts to salaries and pensions that cost governments votes.
- Senators late Tuesday rejected an amendment to a sweeping bank reform bill that would have prohibited so-called naked credit default swaps.
Credit default swaps are a form of insurance institutions buy on bonds they purchase to protect them against the possibility that those bonds default - Top regulators and stock-exchange officials on Tuesday proposed the creation of a unified circuit-breaker system for all exchanges to halt or slow down trades of a particular stock if the price moves 10% or more in a five minute period. The proposal, which would be market-wide, comes in the wake of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's sudden drop of nearly 1,000 points on May 6 before swiftly recovering to end with a 348-point loss.
