Market Wrap: H-P's $8.8B Oversight; New Housing Starts at 4-Year High; UBS Trader Gets Comeuppance; SAC Capital Under Fire
Get Alerts HPQ Hot Sheet
Join SI Premium – FREE
Market wrap-up for November 20th
End of the Day: S&P 500 up 0.9 to 1,387.81; Dow Jones down 7.5 to 12,78.51; Nasdaq up 0.6 to 2,916.68
The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
End of the Day: S&P 500 up 0.9 to 1,387.81; Dow Jones down 7.5 to 12,78.51; Nasdaq up 0.6 to 2,916.68
The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
- $8.8 billion in fraud tends to have a nasty affect: Like showing up to your own birthday only to discover that your parents are the only two guests, Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) fourth-quarter results were hit on revelation that recent acquisition Autonomy may not have been as forthcoming as H-P was lead to believe. As a result, H-P ended up with an $8.8 billion charge in the quarter and a lot of unanswered questions left.
Good thing there's plenty of attorneys to choose from.
Oh, fourth-quarter adjusted EPS was $1.16 on revs of $30 billion, mixed to the consensus. For more color on the results, click here.
- ...about those tough mortgage standards: Housing starts came in at four-year highs today. According to data from the U.S. Commerce Department, starts increased 3.6 percent from the end of September through the end of October to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 894,000. The number compares with the consensus estimate of 840,000 and a revised lower 863,000 for September.
Hurricane Sandy was said to have "minimal" impact on the results.
- They'll be sorry when BB10 hits..: Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) has been on quite the run recently...just tell that to another government agency that's dropping BlackBerry as its go-to for employees. According to reports, the National Transportation Safety Board is nixing the 'Berry in favor of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone 5.
Not content to just drop BlackBerry and leave it, the NTSB commented that RIM's OS has been, "failing both at inopportune times and at an unacceptable rate." Ouch.
- A major deal between miners: Glencore's $31.5 billion takeover proposal for Xstrata plc surpassed the investor hurdle today, receiving approval by shareholders earlier in the session. The two must now get approval from European and Chinese regulators before the deal can close.
- When!: Bayer AG today said that it wouldn't raises its bid for Schiff Nutrition International Inc. (NYSE: SHF), but reiterated that a deal between the two made sense. To read more from the SEC filing, click here.
- Only $2.3 billion in losses and 10,000 fewer employees later: Former UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) rogue trader Kweku Adoboli was found guilty of two counts fraud by jury at London court today. Aside from the fraud charges, Adoboli was also charged with four charges tied to false accounting, though the accounting charges were dismissed.
In total, Adoboli will spend seven years in prison. For more color, click here.
- It's times like this Stevie Cohen wish he'd with with the firm name, "Apex Capital" instead: Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors LP was also at the forefront of headlines today following the U.S. leveling charges against one former fund manager in what is called the "most lucrative" insider trading scheme ever charged.
The trader, Mathew Martoma, is alleged to have obtained insider information about a drug trial, having purchased shares of Elan (NYSE: ELN) and Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) Wyeth before information was made public. He then sold and shorted shares when a negative outcome was relayed to him, netting about $276 million in profits.
Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!
You May Also Be Interested In
- Camden Property Trust (CPT) Announces Executive Changes
- Intrepid Potash (IPI) Grants CEO Temporary Medical Leave of Abscence
- ICZOOM Group (IZM) Discloses Request to Withdraw Registration Statement on Form F-1
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Special ReportsRelated Entities
SAC Capital, UBS, Steven A. Cohen, Standard & Poor's, Housing Starts, Apex CapitalSign 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!