AFTER THE CLOSE
- Baidu.com Inc reported third quarter earnings of 3 cents vs. 1 cent a year ago. Stock fell $12.55 in the late hour trading.
- Corning Inc reported third quarter profit of 13 cents vs. loss of $1.78 a year ago on 18% rise in revenue of $1.19 billion. The company’s display segment accounted close to 40% of the revenue. Stock was unchanged in the after-market trading.
- Pulte Homes reported third quarter earnings of $1.50 vs. $1.03 per share on revenue rise of 27% to $3.8 billion. The company has a backlog of $8 billion or 23,666 homes.
- Raymond James Financial reported Q4 profit of 59 cents vs. 41 cents a year ago on revenue growth of 26% to $564 million. The stock in the after-market rose 5%.
- Harris Corp, communication and defense contractor, reported Q1 profit of 36 cents vs. 29 cents a year ago on revenue growth of 14% to $759 million. The company raised its annual earnings guidance from $1.80 to $1.90 to a range of $2.00 and $2.10 per share.
U.S. MARKET AVERAGES – at 4:25 PM
Market is caught in a trading range.
Choppy trading in the day was swayed by earnings news from Boeing, Amazon at the opening, and weekly petroleum report at mid-morning and then sell-off in the tech stocks in the late afternoon. Market seemed to not make up its mind.
In the morning good earnings report from Air Products, DuPont, and International Paper was met with cautious holiday sales guidance from Amazon, weaker than expected earnings from Boeing and Cardinal Health drove averages in a tight trading range. Weekly Petroleum report suggested rise in crude oil and gasoline inventory and fall in that of distillate. This prompted crude and heating oil to rally only to lose steam in the afternoon.
Ten-year bond yield rose to 4.59% driving interest sensitive stocks such as home builders, financials and mortgage lenders lower.
Oil companies reported rising profits for the calendar third quarter ending Sept 30th. Conoco Phillips reported 89% rise in profit, Amerada Hess reported 53% jump and Kerr-McGee reported 160% profit jump on continued business. Loss of production at oil companies duew to hurricanes has been outweighed by higher oil an gas prices.
Lone exception in the oil sector was earnings report from EnCana Corp. The company reported fall in profit of 38% to 30 cents per shares due to $604 million of losses related hedging. Separately CEO of company announced to step down at the end of the year. The stock fell 8%.
Market traded in a tight range on weaker earnings from Boeing, caution on holiday sales from Amazon and general weariness on rising bond yields. Chemical companies such as Air Products and duPont surprise market. Starwood reported lower profit on tax charges. P.F. Chang's, Chinese restaurant, lowered year's earnings, stock fell 12%. Amazon fell 14% on lower holiday sales forecast. Bausch & Lomb earnings fell on Brazilian investigation.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Dow component
Boeing (
BA: chart) reported higher third-quarter earnings, but its sales decreased 4% following a strike. The company posted third-quarter net income of $1.01 billion, or $1.26 a share, compared with $456 million, or 56 cents, for the same period a year ago. Boeing’s shares fell 3%.
Car maker
DaimlerChrysler (
DCX: chart) beat its rivals
General Motors (
GM: chart) and
Ford Motor (
F: chart) with its third-quarter results. The company’s stock gained 0.7%.
Amazon’s (
AMZN: chart) quarterly earnings decreased 44% and its fourth-quarter sales estimates were below Wall Street expectations. The company’s stock dropped 11%.
