Top 10 News Items for 6/21-6/25: Financial Reform Bill Finally Completed; Q1 GDP Revised Lower; New/Existing Home Sales Disappoint
ORCL Hot Sheet
Overall Analyst Rating:NEUTRAL (= Flat)
Dividend Yield: 0.8%
Revenue Growth %: +3.4%
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. Very early on Friday morning, regulators reached an agreement on what would be included in the sweeping financial reform bill which has been a hot topic on Wall Street since the financial meltdown. After nearly a year of work, the broad overhaul of Wall Street was cleared and will now go back to the House and Senate for a final vote. Lawmakers have indicated that the bill could be on Obama's desk to be signed within the next couple weeks. Among numerous issues which have been highly debated, Democrats fit in the proposed "Volcker Rule" and also a provision which will restrict federally-insured institutions from trading derivatives.
2. The final reading for Q1 GDP was revised lower on Friday, from the previous reading of 3% growth to the latest reading of 2.7% growth. This rate of growth was well off the pace of 5.6 percent in the final quarter of 2009 as the economic recovery from the recession that gripped the nation in 2008.
3. Homebuilders had a rough week on Wall Street as several notable data points came in much worse-than-expected. First, on Tuesday of this week, existing home sales for the month of May came in at 5.66 million, down 2.2% from last month and well below the 6.12 million economists had been expecting. Next, on Wednesday, new home sales for the month decline by a whopping 32.7% to 300,000. The Street had been looking for new home sales of about 410,000.
4. Several important tech earnings came in this week: Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) and Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE). Shares of Oracle moved higher on a beat, RIM shares tumbled almost 11% amid a miss on the sales number, and Adobe shares also fell on a miss.
5. On the BP (NYSE: BP) front, the company announced this week that the cost of cleaning up the Gulf spill have already moved over $2 billion. An underwater collision early this week caused the cap which collects a portion of the leaking oil to come undone, causing a drastic slowdown in the amount of barrels of oil BP is gathering. Also this week, a New Orleans judge lifted President Obama's ban on deepwater offshore drilling, saying that the halt is crippling to jobs amongst the community. Drilling stocks surged on this news.
6. Pay Czar Peter Orszag announced that he will be leaving the Obama administration in July, becoming the highest level senior official to step down from the administration. Orszag had been under pressure to make a decision on his future as the administration begins to put together the fiscal 2011 budget during a period of extreme pressure on the government’s finances.
7. China removed the yuan's unofficial peg to the US dollar on Monday of this week, sending Asian equities rocketing higher.
8. Initial jobless claims for last week marked one of the first declines in several weeks: 457,000, vs. the Street consensus of 463,000. Continuing claims for last week came in at 4.548 million.
9. The Federal Reserve held its two-day FOMC meeting this week, also announcing that it will keep the key interest rate at a range of 0-0.25%. The Fed, notably, also maintained the "exceptionally low" and "extended period" language in the statement.
10. Elsewhere on the earnings front, Walgreen (NYSE: WAG), Jabil (NYSE: JBL), Rite-Aid (NYSE: RAD), CarMax (NYSE: KMX), Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Bed Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) reported.
1. Very early on Friday morning, regulators reached an agreement on what would be included in the sweeping financial reform bill which has been a hot topic on Wall Street since the financial meltdown. After nearly a year of work, the broad overhaul of Wall Street was cleared and will now go back to the House and Senate for a final vote. Lawmakers have indicated that the bill could be on Obama's desk to be signed within the next couple weeks. Among numerous issues which have been highly debated, Democrats fit in the proposed "Volcker Rule" and also a provision which will restrict federally-insured institutions from trading derivatives.
2. The final reading for Q1 GDP was revised lower on Friday, from the previous reading of 3% growth to the latest reading of 2.7% growth. This rate of growth was well off the pace of 5.6 percent in the final quarter of 2009 as the economic recovery from the recession that gripped the nation in 2008.
3. Homebuilders had a rough week on Wall Street as several notable data points came in much worse-than-expected. First, on Tuesday of this week, existing home sales for the month of May came in at 5.66 million, down 2.2% from last month and well below the 6.12 million economists had been expecting. Next, on Wednesday, new home sales for the month decline by a whopping 32.7% to 300,000. The Street had been looking for new home sales of about 410,000.
4. Several important tech earnings came in this week: Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) and Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE). Shares of Oracle moved higher on a beat, RIM shares tumbled almost 11% amid a miss on the sales number, and Adobe shares also fell on a miss.
5. On the BP (NYSE: BP) front, the company announced this week that the cost of cleaning up the Gulf spill have already moved over $2 billion. An underwater collision early this week caused the cap which collects a portion of the leaking oil to come undone, causing a drastic slowdown in the amount of barrels of oil BP is gathering. Also this week, a New Orleans judge lifted President Obama's ban on deepwater offshore drilling, saying that the halt is crippling to jobs amongst the community. Drilling stocks surged on this news.
6. Pay Czar Peter Orszag announced that he will be leaving the Obama administration in July, becoming the highest level senior official to step down from the administration. Orszag had been under pressure to make a decision on his future as the administration begins to put together the fiscal 2011 budget during a period of extreme pressure on the government’s finances.
7. China removed the yuan's unofficial peg to the US dollar on Monday of this week, sending Asian equities rocketing higher.
8. Initial jobless claims for last week marked one of the first declines in several weeks: 457,000, vs. the Street consensus of 463,000. Continuing claims for last week came in at 4.548 million.
9. The Federal Reserve held its two-day FOMC meeting this week, also announcing that it will keep the key interest rate at a range of 0-0.25%. The Fed, notably, also maintained the "exceptionally low" and "extended period" language in the statement.
10. Elsewhere on the earnings front, Walgreen (NYSE: WAG), Jabil (NYSE: JBL), Rite-Aid (NYSE: RAD), CarMax (NYSE: KMX), Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Bed Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) reported.
You May Also Be Interested In
- Notable 52-Week Highs and Lows of the Day 05/24: (LCC) (PETM) (DUK) High; (NTAP) (RIMM) (CPRX) Low
- Notable Mergers and Acquisitions of the Day 05/23: (MON) (STX) (ORCL)
- Notable 52-Week Highs and Lows of the Day 05/21: (BWS) (MMI) (WMT) High; (GFA) (RIMM) (BBY) Low
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Special ReportsRelated Entities
New Home Sales, Existing-Home Sales, Initial Jobless Claims, Federal Open Market Committee, StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week, Barack ObamaSign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
