Special Reports

Top 10 News Items 11/16-11/20: Dell Blows It Again, Geither Gets Roasted on Capitol Hill, Again, IPO's A-Plenty Nov 20, 2009 03:58PM

Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:

1. Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) shares tumbled more than 9% on Friday following a Q3 earnings miss, reported on Thursday after the close. Traders had been bidding up the school prior to the results as Dell's turnaround story has been a hot tech story recently.

2. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was grilled on Capitol Hill this week, taking on a flurry of questions -- maybe even accusations -- related to his role in the financial crisis. Several members of Congress even went as far as asking Geithner to step down from his position.

3. IPO's were all over the Street this week: Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT), Cloud Peak (NYSE: CLD), Archipelago Learning (Nasdaq: ARCL), 7 Days Group (NYSE: SVN) and Global Defense Technology (Nasdaq: GTEC).

4. Warren Buffett's 13F for Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) showed that he added to his stakes in Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), the world's largest retailer, and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), the world's largest oil company. Buffett also showed a new stake in Republic Services (NYSE: RSG).

5. Retail sales for the month of October came in up 1.4%, better than the 0.9% economists had been expecting. Economists are skeptical to say that the numbers are in fact a clear sign that the economy is on the road to recovery. Excluding auto sales, retail demand only rose a slight 0.2 percent in October, half of the expected 0.4 percent rise that was expected by economists surveyed by Thompson Reuters.

6. Retailers continued reporting their quarterly results this week: Target (NYSE: TGT), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Limited (NYSE: LTD) and TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX). The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSE: XRT) finished this week slightly lower.

7. In a letter to clients of his Paulson & Co. hedge fund, investing guru John Paulson said he thinks shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) can double in the next two years. In the letter obtained by Bloomberg news, Paulson said shares of Bank of America could rise to $29.81 by December 2011 as writedowns ease. "Banks will have passed the current writedown cycle and have visibility for growth in 2012," the letter said. Shares of BofA finished this week slightly higher.

8. Bearish banking analyst Meredith Whitney continued her ways this week, telling Mario Bartiromo to "sell the banks" and that "everything is expensive right now". See also said she is concerned with capital levels in the banking sector and sees another leg down in the residential real estate market.

9. BofA downgraded the entire Semi sector on Thursday of this week, putting a kink in the performance of the Dow and Nasdaq. The firm cited "unfavorable indications from our cyclical framework suggesting a modest inventory correction, even in the face of improving electronic demand and a more constructive outlook for the global economies." BofA downgraded Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM), among others.

10. SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) shares tumbled nearly 19% on Tuesday of this week after it disclosed an investigation leading to "unsubstantiated accounting errors". Following the news, there was a parade of analysts scurrying to downgrade the stock

Trading Radar for 11/23: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Tyson Foods (TSN), Campbell Soup (CPB), BJ Services (BJS) Report Nov 20, 2009 03:38PM

The Trading Radar highlights key earnings and economic announcements for tomorrow's trading session:

Before Market Opens:
Earnings:

51JOB Inc. (NASDAQ: JOBS) – consensus EPS $0.10
LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) – consensus loss $0.10
Noah Education Holding Limited (NYSE: NED) – no consensus
Tech Data Corporation (NASDAQ: TECD) – consensus EPS $0.70
Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) – consensus EPS $0.26
Valspar (NYSE: VAL) – consensus EPS $0.49

Intraday or Not Specified:
Economics:
10:00am EST

• Existing Home Sales - Street sees 5.65M

Earnings:

Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTU) – no consensus
American Defense Systems Inc. (NYSE: EAG) – no consensus
BJ Services Company (NYSE: BJS) – consensus EPS $0.02
Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) – consensus EPS $0.81
CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS) – consensus EPS $0.31
eLong Inc (NASDAQ: LONG) – consensus loss $0.03
Kohlbeg Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: KCAP) – consensus EPS $0.23

After Market Closes:
Earnings:

Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI) – consensus EPS $0.26
Atwood Oceanics (NYSE: ATW) – consensus EPS $0.69
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NYSE: BRC) – consensus EPS $0.13
China TechFaith Wireless Com Tech (NASDAQ: CNTF) – no consensus
Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN) – consensus loss $0.01
Dycom Industries (NYSE: DY) – consensus EPS $0.17
Gladstone Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: GLAD) – consensus EPS $0.23
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) – consensus EPS $1.13
National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) – no consensus
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) – consensus EPS $0.29
Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ: SBLK) – consensus EPS $0.01
The9 Ltd. (NASDAQ: NCTY) – consensus loss $0.46

Subscribe to EasyStockAlerts and get real-time e-mail alerts when news hits your stocks!

52-Week Highs and Lows: NYSE - BBY, KO, TRA Higher; AVD Low; NASDAQ - AGYS, DTV, NLST, TTIL, HAWK, RMIX Higher Nov 20, 2009 01:51PM

52-Week NYSE Highs:

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) moved up to $43.50 early. Investors may love the technical’s on BBY, and a positive outlook on Best Buy’s holiday season. The volume today isn’t out of the ordinary.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) touched $57.56, again, early. The high represents only a 1.1% increase over the close yesterday. Investors may be moving back into the safer blue chips as the dollar strengthens and economic confidence is restoring. The stock made a pretty good jump yesterday as well.

Terra Industries (NYSE: TRA) reaches $39.720001. The company’s board now has three members of CF Industries (NYSE: CF), and confidence returns.

NYSE 52-Week Lows

American Vanguard Corp. (NYSE: AVD) shares down to $6.97. Not down a terribly large percentage (only down 2% on yesterdays close), and volumes not substantial. Stock is showing a negative MACD trending upward this afternoon.


NASDAQ Highs:

Agilysys Inc. (NASDAQ: AGYS) hit a high of $8.87 in morning trading. Their largest shareholder, MAK Capital, sent a notice that they would like to increase their stake in the IT Company above 20% of outstanding shares (but they won’t exceed one-third).

DIRECTV Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV) shares hit $32.07. Some unusual movement and volume, but Chairman John Malone said that he hasn’t ruled out a takeover in the future.

Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST) up $7.85. Shares of this company are reacting well to a product release about a week or so ago.

TTI Team Telecom International (NASDAQ: TTIL) moved to $2.57. The stock is riding the 49% upward movement yesterday, after TTI had better than expected earnings.

Seahawk Drilling, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) down to $21.88. No substantial news or analyst changes, but volumes are up today, about 3.6x.

U.S. Concrete Inc. (RMIX) shares down to $0.65. Again, higher volumes but no significant news, or any news, to report on the stock.

Unusual 11 Mid-Day Movers 11/20: GGR, TTIL, INO, NLST Higher; EFUT, HAWK, ADCT, DHI Lower Nov 20, 2009 12:16PM

GeoGlobal Resources (AMEX: GGR) 36.4% HIGHER; not hearing any company-specific news that would justify today's sharp move higher. Could be breaking out technically as the $2 level appears to have been an area of resistance recently.

TTI Telecom (NASDAQ: TTIL) 31.8% HIGHER; continuing higher this morning following yesterday's 49% surge. The firm reported Q3 EPS of $0.07, 7 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.00. Revenue for the quarter was $10.3 million, which compares to the estimate of $11.75 million.

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (Amex: INO) 31.7% HIGHER; announced today that a combination of its synthetic consensus H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 influenza vaccine candidates achieved protective antibody responses against several different influenza sub-types and strains in ferrets. In addition, ferrets immunized with Inovio's SynConTM universal flu vaccine combinations were 100% protected against death and sickness in a challenge with the A/H1N1 (2009) swine-origin influenza.

Netlist (Nasdaq: NLST) 31% HIGHER; today marks the 10th trading day in a row that this stock has had a double-digit percentage swing. Volume remains extremely heavy.

e-Future Information Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: EFUT) 26.7% LOWER; reports Q2 loss of $3.39, or a loss of $0.50 adjusted, compared to a gain of $0.32 in the same quarter last year.

SeraCare Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRLS) 20.3% HIGHER; reports Q4 EPS of $0.08, 8 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.00. Revenue for the quarter was $12.5 million, which compares to the estimate of $11.75 million.

Kirkland's, Inc. (NASDAQ: KIRK) 15.4% HIGHER; reports Q3 EPS of $0.27, versus the analyst estimate of $0.08. Revenue for the quarter was $92.4 million, which compares to the estimate of $85.99 million.

Seahawk Drilling (Nasdaq: HAWK) 14.6% LOWER; not hearing any news today, but volume is already about 4x heavier-than-normal.

ADC (NASDAQ: ADCT) 12.8% LOWER; announced unaudited results for its two-month fourth quarter ended September 30, 2009. As previously announced, ADC changed its fiscal year end to September 30 from October 31. The company reported fourth quarter revenue of $183.9 million and GAAP loss from continuing operations of $19.2 million, or $0.20 per share. The GAAP loss includes certain after-tax charges of $25.5 million. Excluding these charges, the non-GAAP (adjusted) net earnings for the quarter were $6.3 million, or $0.06 per share. The company generated cash from continuing operations of $27.3 million for the two-month quarter and $86.0 million for the 11-month 2009 fiscal year. Net sales for the proforma 2009 fourth quarter totaled $293.6 million, compared to $355.9 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 and $292.3 million for the third quarter ending June 26, 2009. The year-over-year decline in sales principally reflects the impact of the global recession across all of our businesses.

D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) 12.7% LOWER; reports Q4 loss of $0.73, cents better than the analyst estimate of ($0.24). Revenue for the quarter was $1.01 billion, which compares to the estimate of $1.11 billion.

HF Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: HFFC) 12.7% LOWER; today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 2.5 million shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $8.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $20 million. The net proceeds of the offering after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses are approximately $17.939 million.

To get this report daily visit http://www.streetinsider.com/entities/Unusual+11+Mid-Day+Movers.

Notable Midday ETF Movers 11/20: XLV, EWJ Higher; XHB, XLE, SMH Lower Nov 20, 2009 11:59AM

StreetInsider.com Notable ETF Movers:

HIGHER;

• Health Care Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLV) higher
  $0.11 to $30.29, about 0.36%. Led in part by Merck (NYSE: MRK) receiving CHMP recommendation for fertility drug and ahead of the critical healthcare bill vote on Saturday. As a reminder, the bill is for $848 billion. As another reminder, if $848 billion were in seconds, that would equal out to
  26,889 years.
  
  
• iShares MSCI Japan Index (NYSE: EWJ) up 0.38% to $9.275. The ¥en is gaining as the Bank of Japan left the benchmark interest rate alone after its policy meeting.

LOWER:

• SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) down 2% to $14.53. Second largest homebuilder D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) reported a narrower loss (which still exceeded expectations), but the CEO stated that the market continues to be challenging. Home starts reported for October fell 11% from September.
  
  
• Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE) down 1.30% to $56.39. Rough day for energy as a strong dollar trounces oil prices, Cloud Peak’s IPO is trading down, and Valero (NYSE: VLO) shuts down a Delaware plant in a cost-saving effort.
  
  
• Semiconductor HOLDRs (NYSE: SMH) down 1%. Continues downside action after yesterday's big multi-stock downgrade on the view that iinventories in the supply chain are approaching a level suggesting a modest overshoot vs. equilibrium levels.