With all of the trouble in drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, we wanted to look at the most recent weekly rig count data just released from Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI). We are also watching the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH) and the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) as the two key ETFs on the rig count data, although the services sector is much more direct of a look than the oil commodity ETF that has tracking issues.
Mixed Picture in Oil Rig Counts (BHI, OIH, USO)
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Rethinking Apple Earnings Strategies (AAPL, ADBE, MSFT, GOOG, AMZN, INTC, T, VZ)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is starting to feel the heat in the aftermath after having become the biggest and best for new hot products along with a cult stock following. Steve Jobs has made the iPad and iPhone a serious issue regarding Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) for not allowing Flash to run on the systems. Its market cap has now surpassed Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT). It is taking on Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) in advertising and soon in search. It is fighting for every red cent it can take from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) in media sales via books, movies, and music. It is even now going around Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) for the processors on many of its newer products. The company is also having issues with the iPhone4 that are being dealt with in an odd manner, with a conference call today. With earnings coming out next Tuesday, it may be time to rethink the perma-bull strategy here.
Consumer Confidence Collapses As “Recession” Returns
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index plummeted to 66.5 from 76.0 in June. That was below market expectations for 74.5, according to the news service. The number is at the lowest point in 11 months
The figure is close to the lows reached during the worst part of the recession, and demonstrates that the average American does not think the downturn is over. A recent Bloomberg survey showed the 70% of those polled believed that the national economy is still in a recession.
The major cause of the drop is almost certainly the intractable unemployment that has plagued the economy for two years. The joblessness problem gets worse as each month passes and a larger number of people are out of work for six months or longer, although total unemployment is steady at just below 10%. Read Full Story
Trouble in Oil Spill Clean-Up Shares (BP, CLH, NLC, NR, MOPN)
BP plc (NYSE: BP) managed to get a cap on the well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Pressure continues to build and it is unknown if that cap is going to hold. But what has been seen into this news over the last 48 hours is a distinct round of profit taking, and some shorting, of the stocks poised to win from the clean-up. Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE:CLH) and Nalco Holding Co. (NYSE:NLC) saw selling in mid-cap to larger-cap names, while Newpark Resources, Inc. (NYSE:NR) and the Pink Sheet-listed MOP Environmental (OTC: MOPN) are off as well. This is just one more example of how one-time beneficiaries, even if the ‘one-time’ may last for extended periods of time, are difficult themes for investors to hang around in through time.
Honda Going Green with Hybrid-only Civic
There hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but the news is that Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) will stop building its gasoline-powered Civic for the domestic Japanese market. The company will also stop making its Legend and Elysion models. A new Civic model will roll off the line in the fall of 2011, including a hybrid version that will be the only Civic available in the Japanese market.
Honda appears to be serious about going green. The company also plans to re-start construction of a factory it was building in 2008. The company halted construction of the plant, which would have been in production this year, due to the economic slow-down. As if to underscore the upbeat demand for cars, Toyota Motor Co. (NYSE: TM) has announced that it will build a new plant in Brazil. Read Full Story
Foreign Purchase Of US Assets Wither
The U.S. Department of the Treasury released Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for May 2010.
From the data:
Net foreign purchases of long-term securities were $35.4 billion.
* Net foreign purchases of long-term U.S. securities were $33.0 billion. Of this, net purchases by private foreign investors were $23.8 billion, and net purchases by foreign official institutions were $9.2 billion.
* U.S. residents sold a net $2.4 billion of long-term foreign securities. Read Full Story
Top Day Trader Alerts (ARNA, AVII, BIDU, BAC, C, GOOG, OREX, PLCM, VVUS)
We have many names on the move, some tied to earnings and some not. This Friday’s top day trader alerts and active trader alerts have been seen in Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA), AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII), Baidu. Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), BP plc (NYSE: BP), Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX), Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), and VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS). We have provided the news for the move, the move and volume, and added in some color for traders on each where applicable.
Today’s Best Market Rumors (7/16/2010)
Updated throughout the day.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) will not recall its iPhone 4 (various)
Two private equity groups will make final bids in a $1.6 billion battle for control of Healthscope (Reuters)
Douglas A. McIntyre
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ATHN, BP, OHI, FII, JPM, GS, LVS, MOS, RBA, RGLD, VVUS, VOD, WYNN)
These are some of this Friday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street firms:
Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Cut to Hold at Standpoint; maintained at HOLD per S&P Equity Research.
Omega Healthcare (NYSE: OHI) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Federated Investors (NYSE: FII) Cut to Neutral at Macquarie.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch; Raaised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) Raised to Overweight at JMorgan.
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE: RBA) has seen targets or ratings trimmed at BMO, Raymond James, RBC, Paradigm, and more.
Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) Raised to Buy at UBS.
VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) has been downgraded by Needham, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Brean Murray, and likely others.
Vodafone plc (NYSE: VOD) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
JON C. OGG
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Stock Market Report 7.16.2010 The Wisdom Of Crowds
Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million Twitter users. It raises the question of whether there is wisdom in crowds.
24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweet are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. These financial sites are followed by a combined 625,000 Twitter users which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites.
Among the most tweeted stocks on StockTwits are Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), EURUSD, JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), VIVUS (NASDAQ: VVUS), and Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG). Read Full Story
GE Improves: Energy Ops Drag, NBCU Bright Spot
GE announced today second-quarter 2010 earnings from continuing operations (attributable to GE) of $3.3 billion, with EPS of $0.30 per share up 15% from the second quarter of 2009. Revenues were $37.4 billion for the quarter, down 4% from a year ago, impacted by lower GE Capital assets, industrial dispositions and lower equipment sales as expected.
“GE’s economic environment continues to improve,” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said, citing growth in orders, margins and earnings amid other encouraging signs in the quarter. “Equipment orders increased 17%, including 20% growth in the Energy Infrastructure segment and 14% at Technology Infrastructure. Oil & Gas and Healthcare orders were particular bright spots and helped hold total company orders backlog roughly flat, excluding the impact of foreign exchange, according to the company.
24/7 Wall St. CEOs Who Need to be Fired: Nine for 2010
Public companies dismiss CEOs all the time. The firings can be due to incompetence, malfeasance, or tensions with boards of directors or founders. 24/7 Wall St. has chosen nine sitting CEOs who should be let go by their boards.
All the CEOs are on this list for simple reasons. The first is that many have presided over ethical or legal lapses. This is certainly an issue at Goldman Sachs, Dell, and Moody’s. It is easy for observers to say that the chief executive of a large firm cannot be responsible for every action of every employee. But when the trouble is repeated and widespread, it is senior management that must be blamed for refusing to set a strong moral tone.
Read Full Story
As Apple Fixes One iPhone Problem, Another Looms
Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) will have its big press conference today. Ahead of the event the company is in the midst of offering software and other solutions to weak signal and false signal readings on its iPhone 4.
Just as Apple appears to be slowly putting its iPhone 4 problems behind it, some users have found what could be a significant flaw with the iPhone 3GS. The BBC reported that “some owners of the iPhone 3GS are reporting that an earlier update to the handset’s operating system made their phone far more likely to drop calls.”
“The Apple support forum dealing with the problem now has more than 36 pages of comments attached to it. Apple has yet to give specific advice about this problem but many users report that restoring the phone’s firmware fixes the trouble,” the news agency reports. Read Full Story
Half Of Social Network Users Fear Privacy Issues As They Should
Many users of social media networks are worried that the companies that own the networks “spy” on them. Most of these privacy issues have to do with the websites giving marketers information about the habits of their users. That allows advertisers to more effectively reach their target audiences. The practice seems benign, but many people with profiles on sites like Facebook and MySpace do not want any of their information given out at all.
Social network membership is, to some extent, a deal with the devil. All the services are free. People do not have to pay to host their pages, pages which take up storage space no matter how modest. However, tens of millions of members create content that strains millions of dollars worth of storage and servers and the need to add to that capacity is growing. Perhaps the social network member should give something in return? Read Full Story
As Goldman Settles, Main Street Loses
It is too easy to say that the average American expects law-breakers to go to prison or at least receive extreme punishment. Neither of those things happened in the SEC settlement with Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS). Goldman did not have to admit to any crime. Its settlement costs were, by the standards of its balance sheet, very modest. By some estimates, the penalty is about two weeks worth of profit at the big investment bank.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to represent the interests of the public by enforcing regulations and laws aimed at curtailing abuses by public companies and financial firms. The Goldman settlement did none of that, at least as far as most people can see. It was a slap on the wrist of a company where many managers make millions of dollars and the CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, makes tens of millions. He did not lose his job. His position at the top of the firm may be cemented, actually, because he was the leader of the company when it dodged what could have been harsh penalties. Read Full Story
Video Game Sales Remain Depressed, Wii Loses Ground
Video game sales were down again in June. The introduction of new games and cut in console prices by Microsoft Corporation (NYSE: MSFT), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Nintendo (OTC:NTDOY) have been trumped by faltering consumer confidence amid consumer worries about jobs and access to credit.
NPD reports that software sales declined 15% to $531.3 million in the US compared to June a year ago. Console sales were down 5% to $401.7 million. Read Full Story
Media Digest 7/16/2010
MarketWatch: AgBank rose after its debut on the Hong Kong market.
Reuters: Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) settled with the SEC for $550 million.
Reuters: BP plc (NYSE: BP) capped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Reuters: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) profits missed targets as expenses rose.
Reuters: Smartphone sales pushed up results in Q2 for Sony Ericsson.
Reuters: A recall of the Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone is unlikely. Read Full Story
Goldman Sachs Settles With SEC For Mere $550 Million, Shares Rise
The SEC once again proved that it cannot complete a large case against a major company. In a settlement that looks like those that it made with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) over disclosures connected to its purchase of Merrill Lynch and a number of firms accused of backdating stock options to increase executive compensation, the agency went the route of a relatively modest penalty. That is all the $550 million represents to Goldman Sachs Inc. (NYSE: GS).
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Goldman Sachs will pay the fine and reform its business practices to settle SEC charges that it misled investors in a subprime mortgage product just as the U.S. housing market was starting to collapse.
In agreeing to the SEC’s largest-ever penalty paid by a Wall Street firm, Goldman also acknowledged that its marketing materials for the subprime product contained incomplete information. Read Full Story
Google Earnings Trend Becomes That of Disappointment (GOOG)
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has another round of earnings which are not going to be good enough for many. The search behemoth posted earnings of $6.45 EPS on ex-TAC revenues of $5.09 billion. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $6.52 EPS and $4.99 billion in ex-TAC revenues. This will mark the second big move downward after earnings in a row, and it should be noted that the earnings estimate was $0.02 per share less at the earnings release than what Thomson Reuters listed a week ago. We broke each unit of measurement out and comparative data on each.
European Auto Sales Continue to Slide
Sales of new cars in Europe, as measured by new car registrations, dropped in June for the third consecutive month. The slide is attributed to the end of what the Europeans call scrappage plans, better known in the US as the “cash-for-clunkers” program. The following chart shows the spike in new car registrations in March, before most of the scrappage plans expired on April 1.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw a -15% drop in month-over-month sales, and General Motors saw sales drop of just -0.2%, mainly on the strength of sales of the Vauxhall and Opel brands. Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) had a -12.4% drop in sales.
Compared with June 2009, European new car registrations were down 6.9%, better than the 7.4% year-over-year decline in April and the 9.3% decline in May. Car registrations totaled 1,341,092 in all of Europe in June. For the first half of 2010, new car registrations were barely better, up 0.2% compared with 2009. Compared with the first six months of 2008, new registrations fell by 10.3%. Read Full Story
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Today’s top tickerspy Indexes Chinese Education... +1.1% Bond ETFs +0.2% Debt-Focused Clos... -0.1% Currency ETFs -0.5% MLPs -0.5% 
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