12:30 PM ET – U.S. Earnings Update

Home Store (HOMS: chart), home listing service on the Internet, posted fourth quarter loss and revenue rise from $54 million to $66 million but posted loss of 3 cents vs. 4 cents a year ago. For the year the company generated breakeven results vs. 6 cents a year ago. The stock rose 15% at mid-day.

Dillard’s (DDS: chart) luxury retailer, reported Q4 earnings of $1.24 vs. $1.30 a share on revenue of $2.38 billion. Excluding one time items, the company earned $1.02 vs. estimates of 87 cents.

Checkpoint Systems (CKP: chart) lost as much as 6% but recovered to loss of 3% after reporting first quarter guidance that unnerved investors. For the fourth quarter the company reported 31 cents and 38 cents after excluding one-time charges vs. 30 cents a year ago. For the full-year the company guided earnings of $1.40 to $1.50 including stock based compensation of 11 cents and 12 cents.

Univision Communication (UVN: chart) reported Q4 earnings of 8 cents vs. 19 cents a year ago. Excluding one-time charges the earnings were 25 cents vs. estimates of 23 cents. The company guided for the first quarter earnings of 14 cents to 16 cents excluding items on revenue growth of 7%.


11:30 AM ET – U.S. Market Morning Update

Bond yields are on the rise as concerns for global rise in yields sets in. recent hike in interest rates in Europe and expected rise in Japan short-term rates has caused 10-year bond to rise to 4.67%.

Naturally home builders are taking hit on the account of rising rates. Toll Bros. (TOL: chart) and Hovnaian (HOV: chart) declined better than 2% and Beazer Homes (BZH: chart), Ryland Group (RYL: chart), KB Homes (KBH: chart) and Lennar (LEN: chart) lost more than 1%.

Chicago Board of Trade (BOT: chart) rose another $2.00 on the news that its February contract volume rose 9%.

Steel companies and mining stocks were in the news on the account of merger talks between AK Steel and U.S. Steel. Mittal Steel (MT: chart) rose 3% on the general rise in steel stocks in Europe and in New York. Mining stocks BHP Billiton (BHP: chart) and Brazilian iron ore mining company C.V.R.D. (RIO: chart) declined 1%.

With the rise in oil price energy stocks were up. Baker Hughes (BHI: chart), Rowan & Co. (ROW: chart), ExxonMobil (XOM: chart), Valero (VLO: chart) and Tessoro (TSO: chart) rose and then turned negative.

9:40 AM ET – U.S. Market Movers

Intel (INTC: chart) stated that it expects first quarter revenue to be between $8.7 billion and $9.1 billion lower from the previous forecast of $9.1 to $9.7 billion. Intel also said that because of the lower earnings gross margins will be affected. Intel generated $9.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter last year. The stock was trading 1.5% lower. Market had been worried that the company many be losing market share to AMD (AMD: chart) and facing capacity constraint in delivering chips needed in the Asian markets.

Google (GOOG: chart) at the opening was trading higher close to $10 after presentation to the analysts at the company quarter. The company painted rosier picture and tried to diffuse earlier concerns related to rate of growth created by it CFO.

Genworth (GNW: chart) said that General Electric has priced class A common stock of approximately 71 million shares at $32.75. Genworth will also buy back 15 million class B stock from GE. Genworth will not receive any proceeds of the sales of class A stock. After the sale GE will not own any stake in Genworth. General Electric also confirmed its first quarter earnings of 38 cents to 40 cents and for the year earnings of $1.94 to $2.02 per share.


9:00 AM ET – U.S. Market Opening

Crude oil is on top of trader’s mind. Crude New York Mercantile Exchange rose 43 cents to $63.79 per barrel and rose in London trading as well. Iraq occupations and Iranian government’s defiance to U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran’s difficult negotiations with Russia have traders worried again.

Starbucks issued, better-than-expected estimate of 6.5%, same-store sales rise of 8% report on expanded food sales. General Electric reaffirmed its earnings guidance for the quarter and the year and released details of the secondary offering for the recent spin-off Genworth.