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INDUSTRY NEWS

This Stock ‘Not Dead Yet’: Wall Street Pros

Posted on May 6, 2013 by admin

05/05/2013 – Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn (LNKD) earnings had Wall Street buzzing about social media and mobile this week. But investors may not want to ignore less cool Microsoft (MSFT), say analysts.

Facebook generated excitement last week when its earnings release showed growth in mobile ad revenue and got investors excited that its mobile strategy is starting to pay off.

“The migration from desktop to mobile looked like a threat a year ago,” Kevin Landis, CIO of Firsthand Funds, told CNBC. “Now it looks like it plays to their advantage, particularly when you bring in the idea of new Facebook Home.”

With more than 1 billion people already socializing and few competitors, Facebook can build something “really awesome,” Landis said.

But in the Internet space, Facebook stock still isn’t Wall Street analysts’ favorite name. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney, who has said “mobile monetization at Facebook can work,” calls the stock just a “small buy.”

He has a $32 price target on Facebook, but said Netflix (NFLX), Amazon.com (AMZN), Google (GOOG), and even Priceline (PCLN) have more upside.

Ken Sena of Evercore Partners also believes Facebook looks expensive. “Facebook increasingly seems to be a media and communications platform,” he said. “What most investors bought into was somewhat of a marketplace.”

Sena prefers Google.

Microsoft ‘Keeps Coming’ Read the rest of this entry »

S&P 500 ends at record high on Apple, economic data

Posted on April 30, 2013 by admin

04/30/2013 -Stocks rose moderately on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 ending at another all-time closing high on a jump in Apple and encouraging economic data.

The benchmark index hit a new intraday high in the last minutes of trading, following a session that was largely marked by slight moves as investors found few reasons to extend recent gains.

Technology shares led the day’s advance, contributing to the Nasdaq’s sharp gain.

Encouraging data on home prices and consumer confidence added to the day’s positive tone, though a decline in regional business activity underlined the growth concerns that remain.

“Even though the overall backdrop isn’t overly positive, the market has a strong underlying bid, where it wants to go up on earnings and the Federal Reserve having our back with policy,” said Michael Mullaney, chief investment officer of Fiduciary Trust Co in Boston.

Apple (AAPL.O) rose 2.9 percent to $442.78 after coming to market with the largest non-bank bond sale in history as it seeks funding to return cash to shareholders. The tech giant has been one of the biggest drags on the S&P 500 this year, falling nearly 17 percent in 2013.

U.S. home prices rose in February at their fastest rate in almost seven years while consumer confidence rebounded in April. However, business activity in the U.S. Midwest unexpectedly contracted in April to its lowest level since September 2009.

The S&P 500 closed out its sixth straight month of gains, its longest winning streak since September 2009, as investors used any pullback as a buying opportunity.

“There’s more good news than bad news, and the bad news isn’t enough to disrupt the uptrend we’ve been in,” said Steve Sosnick, equity-risk manager at Timber Hill/Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich, Connecticut.

About 6.55 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, above the daily average so far this year of about 6.36 billion shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 21.05 points, or 0.14 percent, to 14,839.80 at the close. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) rose 3.96 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,597.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 21.77 points, or 0.66 percent, to close at 3,328.79.

Equities continue to draw support from expectations that central banks will maintain low interest rates and other economic stimulus measures. A statement from the Federal Reserve due Wednesday is expected to keep in place the central bank’s pace of bond buying to stimulate the economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Global stocks rise after surprise U.S. data, bonds fall

Posted on April 25, 2013 by admin

04/26/2013 – Asian shares steadied on Friday, tracking global equities higher after upbeat U.S. labor market data, with investors turning their attention toward corporate earnings to assess the outlook for growth after a recent run of soft global data undermined sentiment.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan.MIAPJ0000PUS was little changed, after reaching its highest since mid-March on Thursday.

Europe’s top shares rose for the fifth straight session on Thursday, underpinned by expectations of a rate cut by the European Central Bank at its meeting next week, but the euro hovered near a three-week low of $1.2954, easing 0.1 percent to $1.3002 early in Asia on Friday.

The U.S. government reported on Thursday that new claims for jobless benefits fell more than expected, providing some relief to investors after a recent series of weak data. The labor market report comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy-making meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the closely watched monthly payrolls report for April on May 3.

Japan’s Nikkei stock average .N225 opened up 0.4 percent after hitting its highest since June 2008 on Thursday. Japanese financial markets will be closed on Monday for a holiday. .T

“It’s ahead of a long weekend and we have U.S. GDP and Japanese earnings. So a lot of investors may want to wait for them before buying more,” said Masayuki Doshida, senior market analyst at Rakuten Securities, of Japanese stocks.

Although it is still early in the quarterly reporting season, only two out of the 16 Nikkei companies that have reported so far beat market expectations, data from Thomson Reuters StarMine showed.

Overnight U.S. S&P 500 .INX rose 0.4 percent, driven by stronger-than-expected earnings and the large drop in weekly jobless claims. Read the rest of this entry »

Wall Street dips as McDonald’s, GE extend losses on earnings

Posted on April 22, 2013 by admin

Stocks edged lower on Monday, asearnings from Caterpillar, Halliburton and other major companies pointed to more volatile trading ahead.

General Electric (GE.N), down 2.1 percent to $21.29 and McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N), off 1.2 percent to $98.66, extended losses from Friday after posting lackluster earnings. Both stocks were declining for the fourth straight day.

Wall Street is coming off a week of extreme volatility, with the CBOE Volatility index .VIX jumping 24 percent, the biggest weekly gain for the so-called fear index this year. The index was up 2.5 percent on Monday.

The swings were largely driven by weak corporate earnings and signs of slowing growth from China, which led to a steep drop in commodity prices. The week’s decline fueled talk that the market’s long anticipated pullback had arrived, though the S&P remains up nearly 9 percent on the year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted on March 4, 2013 by admin

France says al Qaeda chief Abou Zeid “probably” killed

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3/4/2013 – France gave the first indication on Monday that it believed reports that Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, one of al Qaeda’s most feared commanders in Africa, had been killed in Mali, an event that would deal a serious blow to the militants’ leadership.

Edouard Guillaud, head of France’s joint chiefs of staff, said it was probable Abou Zeid had been killed in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains where French troops are hunting down al Qaeda-linked fighters after a seven-week campaign which has broken Islamist control of northern Mali.

But he remained cautious over reports of the death of another jihadist leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Abou Zeid is accused of earning al Qaeda millions of dollars through kidnappings, including the abduction of more than 20 Western hostages since 2008. He is believed to have killed British hostage Edwin Dyer in 2009 and 78-year-old Frenchman Michel Germaneau in 2010.

Guillaud said his death could not be definitively confirmed because his body had not been recovered.

“It is probable, but only probable,” he told Europe 1 radio. “We don’t have any certainty for the moment. It would be good news.”

Chad, which is fighting alongside France in the mountains, said last week its troops had killed both Abou Zeid and Belmokhtar, the mastermind of a mass hostage-taking in January at the In Amenas gas plant in the Algerian desert in which around 60 people were killed.

Guillaud said he was “extremely cautious” about reports of Belmokhtar’s death, noting that some militant websites had said the al Qaeda commander, nicknamed ‘the uncatchable’, was still at large.

If confirmed, the killing of Abou Zeid and Belmokhtar would raise questions about the fate of eight French hostages held by al Qaeda in the Sahel. The families of four French hostages seized in Niger in September 2010 appealed to Paris on Monday to open negotiations with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

“We ask for a pause to negotiate with the remaining fighters and save our loved ones, rather than fighting on blindly and taking the risk of putting their lives in danger,” Pascale Robert, the mother of one of the hostages, told BFM TV.

They Bailed On Their Homes — Now They Want Back In

Posted on February 23, 2013 by admin

Home sales are slowly climbing back, thanks to investor demand, improving consumer confidence in housing, and the surprising return of former homeowners who once walked away from their commitments.

These so-called, “strategic defaulters,” some of them investors and some owner-occupants, are coming back to the market, despite damaged credit, and apparently the market is welcoming them back.

A new survey of past clients by YouWalkAway.com, a website that assists borrowers in the legal pitfalls of strategic default, found that nearly 80 percent expressed a desire to buy a home again within the next twelve months. It also cites data by Moody’s analytics, showing that the number of eligible home buyers who have had a previous foreclosure will be 1.5 million by the first quarter of 2014.

Crashing home prices and sketchy mortgage products caused millions of Americans to default on their loans and eventually lose their homes. For some, it was a tragic fight to the end to keep their single largest investment; for others it was a conscious decision to walk away from their mortgage commitments, given the real fact that they would likely not see home equity again for many years to come.

Some saw this as morally reprehensible, others as a sensible business decision.

While home ownership has fallen dramatically since the recent housing boom, from a high of 69.2 percent in 2004 to 65.4 percent at the end of 2012, according to the U.S. Census, the desire to own a home is still strong. 70 percent of Americans surveyed by online real estate website Trulia.com said homeownership was still a part of the “American Dream.” 65 percent of those surveyed by Fannie Mae in January of 2013 said that if they had to move, they would buy a home, rather than rent. Read the rest of this entry »

Tesla Loss Is Wider Than Expected; Revenue Beats

Posted on February 20, 2013 by admin

Tesla (TSLA) reported a wider-than-anticipated net loss for the fourth-quarter as higher production costs offset better-than-anticipated revenues.

The electric-car maker reported a fourth-quarter non-GAAP net loss of 65 cents per share on revenue of $306.3 million. A year earlier, the company lost 69 cents per share on just $39 million in sales.

Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of 53 cents a share on $298 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Research and development costs were $62 million in the quarter on a non-GAAP basis but Tesla expects R&D spending to fall about 15 percent in the first quarter.

(Read More: Why the Tesla S May Be a Game-Changer)

The company also expects to continue to make production improvements and should be “slightly profitable” in the first quarter.

Tesla is also forecasting that its gross margin will expand in the second half of the year to its target of 25 percent, despite a lower contribution from regulatory credits. It’s fourth-quarter gross margin was nearly 8 percent.

Tesla also said it expects to achieve its goal of 20,000 Model S deliveries in 2013 and that it added 6,000 new reservations in the quarter, up from almost 2,900 in the third quarter. The company plans to start delivering the Model S in Europe this summer and in Asia later in the year.

What’s Tesla stock doing now? (Click here for the latest after-hours quote. TSLA)

Tesla’s Model S was the subject of a critical review from the New York Times which claimed the car’s mileage didn’t meet expectations. Tesla CEO Elon Musk pushed back against the claims calling the article “unreasonable.”

Recovery Sign: More People Quitting Their Jobs

Posted on February 14, 2013 by admin

02/14/2013 – December had the fewest layoffs since the government began tracking the data in 2000. Also, the most people quit their jobs during the month since June 2008, another sign that job growth and consumer confidence may start to pick up steam this year.

“These points go against the popular notion that the economy ground to a halt while DC negotiated the Fiscal Cliff late last year, and supports the hope domestic labor markets can continue to improve in 2013,” wrote Beth Reed of ConvergEx Group, whose strategy team wrote about the Bureau of Labor Statistics data in a report to clients Wednesday.

“If lawmakers can reach consensus in Washington and allow businesses a sense of economic stability, then job growth might actually accelerate,” she added.

Layoffs totaled 1.57 million in December, the fewest since the BLS started releasing the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey in 2000.

The data showed 2.16 million people quit their jobs, representing 53 percent of all job separations when one accounts for those that just retired, according to ConvergEx.

“Our ‘Take this Job and Shove It” indicator of current/future consumer confidence hit a recovery high,” stated Reed. “You’re not going to quit your job if you have no faith in your own economic status.”

Google plans to litigate U.S. tax dispute with IRS

Posted on February 6, 2013 by admin

Google Inc, which consumer groups have accused of trying to avoid payment of U.S. taxes, plans to sue the Internal Revenue Service over a tax audit, according to a federal securities filing.

The web search giant said it is appealing an IRS audit related to 2003 and 2004, but that on one undescribed issue, it plans to “litigate in court,” said its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated January 29.

A company spokeswoman was not available for comment.

Groups such as Citizens for Tax Justice accuse Google of using accounting gimmicks and paper transactions to shift profits to tax havens to avoid U.S. tax.

Google also said its tax rate for the United States declined in 2012, in part because of “proportionately more earnings realized in countries that have lower statutory tax rates.”

Its effective tax rate fell to 19.4 percent in 2012, from 21 percent in 2011, according to the filing.

The United States has the highest statutory corporate income tax rate among its industrialized peers at 35 percent. Many companies say this hurts their competitiveness.

The tax rate paid, however, is highly variable across sectors, and tech companies in particular enjoy numerous options for transferring profits offshore to tax havens to avert tax.

President Barack Obama and Republicans both back lowering the corporate rate, though they differ on how to get there and whether new revenue should be raised in the process.

Several European countries are taking an aggressive stance on corporate tax avoidance, most notably the United Kingdom.

(Reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Steve Orlofsky)