Market Wrap: Bernanke Sours on Economy; Goldman Beats, Rises; Other Big EPS Reports; Google+ on Top


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July 17, 2012 5:57 PM EDT Send to a Friend
Market wrap-up for July 17th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 78.3 to 12,805.54; S&P 500 up 10.0 to 1,363.67; Nasdaq up 13.1 to 2,910.04

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • The QE3 Express could puill into the Stimulus Station soon: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke made a semiannual testimony in front of Congress Tuesday, painting somewhat of a bleak picture of the U.S. economy while giving little in the way of hints on QE3.

    In part, Bernanke said that following a 2.5 percent increase in GDP in the second-half of 2011, "real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 2 percent pace in the first quarter of 2012, and available indicators point to a still-smaller gain in the second quarter." Bernanke also noted that reduction in the current 8.5 percent unemployment rate continues to be frustratingly slow.

    For more on the statement, click here.

  • Financials turn to 'gold': Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) ended the session higher following stronger than expected second-quarter 2012 numbers. Profit per share slipped seven cents to $1.78 with revenue of $6.63 billion, but both beat views calling for EPS of $1.13 and revs of $6.28 billion.

    Goldman ended up about 0.3 percent better Tuesday.

  • More notable earnings:
    • Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) posted second-quarter revs of $13.5 billion and EPS of 54 cents, compared with expectations calling for revs of $13.56 billion and EPS of 52 cents. For more on the numbers, click here.

    • Yahoo, Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) reported Q2 EPS of $0.27, 4 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.23. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.08 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.1 billion. See more here.

    • Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) reported Q2 EPS of $1.38 and revs of $1.25 billion, versus consensus views calling for EPS of $1.51 and revs of of $1.34 billion.

    • CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) posted second-quarter EPS of $0.49 and sales of $3.01 billion. The Street expected EPS of $0.47 and revs of $3.05 billion.
  • HSBC's (NYSE: HBC) head of compliance, David Bagley, stepped down Tuesday, following results from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation showing "HSBC's U.S. bank became a conduit for money-launderers and potential terrorist financiers," according to the WSJ.

  • Plus, plus. PlusPlusPlus!: According to new data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report (ACSIER), users of Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Google+ social media site are "more satisfied" than users of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB). Coming in with a 78 out of 100, Google+ was on the same level as Wikipedia. Facebook received a 61 in the social-media category.

    No real surprise here; Facebook is known for irking users with its constant changes, while those using Google+ regularly are dedicated "pioneers" looking to break the Facebook death grip. Still, such a wide margin is surprising, especially for such a well-established company like Facebook.

    LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) came in at 63 with Pintrest garnering a 69.

    For the study, about 70,000 customers are surveyed annually.

  • The corn is too darn high!: Numbers out earlier on the USDA corn crop expectations still appear to be too high. Given expectations of continued drought, AccuWeather.com agricultural meteorologists expect the actually figure to be closer to 138 bushels per acre, below the 146 bushels projects by the USDA.
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