Posts Tagged ‘stocks’

(Lee Siler) - Stocks took a big hit yesterday on a stronger dollar and Citigroup news. The demand for the Citigroup secondary offering was much less than the company thought. Citi was trying to get around $3.35 a share for the $20+ billion offering. The company ended up pricing the offering at $3.15. At this price the Treasury department decided not to sell our tax payers shares at this time. The Treasury said they would hold off for 90 days and after that would sell within the next 12 months.

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(Lee Siler) - For the week, stocks moved slightly higher despite the dollar showing some strength. Last week, we saw a paradigm change as the weak dollar trade subsided and was now trading in concert with stocks. It had been a long time since we've seen stocks and the dollar trade in the same direction. Well Friday's surprising employment data got the dollar moving. The fact that unemployment dropped to 10% from 10.2% was a huge surprise. Wall Street applauded the news. However, I'm not sure that this is the start of a trend. I still think unemployment is a major issue and will likely jump back up to over 10.2% over the next few months.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks continued their slide yesterday, as the dollar is starting to show some strength. This recent move in the dollar is likely an oversold bounce. Most experts do not see a significant dollar rally, especially since the Fed has stated that they will not raise rates for an extended period. Raising rates is the best tool the Fed has to prop up the dollar...

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks look to build on last week's gains, as this week will be packed with economic data. This morning, retail sales came in a little better than expected. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales increased by 1.4% during the month of October. However, if you strip auto and auto parts sales, the number came in less than expected. Ex-auto's, economists had been expecting a jump by 0.4%, but actually came in about half of that number at 0.2%.

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(Lee Siler) - The market ended the day mixed on moderate trade. Considering the major averages rallied two of the three previous days, I would chalk yesterday up as a victory. It's been a while since the Dow Jones gained more than 200 points two of three days...

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(Lee Siler) - The nation's unemployment rate jumped to over 10% for the first time since October 1983. The consensus estimate was 9.9%, but the continued lay-offs being handed out by corporate America made the number jump to 10.2%. The news has sent stock futures plunging from earlier levels.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks basically treaded water yesterday, as Wall Street awaits the Fed's comments at the conclusion of their meeting today.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks continued to trade lower on economic growth concerns and the stronger dollar. Obviously, the weaker dollar has benefited the large cap multinational companies with regards to earnings for this past quarter. When the dollar is weak, like it has been for quite some time now, companies that depend on exports for a large part of their business have a huge advantage. And we've seen it in this quarter's earnings reports. A large majority of the S&P 500, which are the 500 largest companies, have beat analysts' expectations. Keep in mind earnings are still down from a year ago, but that was expected.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks took a hit yesterday despite a slew of positive earnings news. It appears that the recent run up in stocks prices was in anticipation of a better than expected third quarter with regards to profits. It is ominous that the market can't seem to chug higher in the midst of terrific quarterly reports. With about 25% of the S&P 500 reporting earnings, approximately 79% of companies have beat analysts' expectations. That is itself is much better than average.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks are set to open higher, as earnings season kicks in to high gear. Later this week we'll see just how well many of our country's biggest companies have been performing. Over the next few days GE, Intel, JNJ, JP Morgan, Google and IBM just to name a few, will surely move the markets one way or the other with their reports. Last quarter the number of stocks on the S&P 500 beating earnings estimates was at record highs due to a pessimistic Wall Street. Although there is still a degree of pessimism with regards to profits, it is certainly better than last quarter.

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