11:00AM NY – Trading sentiment ahead of earnings releases remain positive. Construction industry equipment stocks jump in the morning trading in New York.

Spartech Corp (SHE: chart), building material maker, said that its chief executive has resigned and lowered its earnings guidance for the year. The company now expects to earn between $1.45 and $1.50 per share from previous guidance of $1.55 and $1.62 per share. The company blamed the shortfall to tough market in transportation and residential construction industries. The company also plans to take a charge of 4 cents stemming from the executive resignation. The stock fell 17% to $22.60.

J.M. Smucker (SJM)), maker of jams, peanut butter and other food products, fell 4.2% to $60.82 on no news. The stock trading near 52-week high has risen nearly 25% in the year.

IHOP Corporation (IHP: chart) jumped 10% on the takeover agreement to purchase Applebee’s for $2.1 billion. The stock jumped $5.60 to $61.86 after WSJ.com reported the news.

Positive outlook on construction industry equipment companies lifted shares of Terex (TEX: chart), Manitowoc (MTW: chart), Joy Global (JOYG: chart), Caterpillar (CAT: chart), and Deer & Company (DE: chart). Terex jumped 4.5%, Caterpillar and Joy Global gained more than 1% and Deer edged a fraction up.


10:00AM NY – After thirty minutes of trading, NY awaits earnings results for the second quarter.

In the first thirty minutes of trading in New York, market averages moved higher on second quarter earnings expectations and traditional summer rally. The first week of heavy earnings season weighed heavily on investors with a number of banks expected to release earnings. Weakness in dollar against euro and yen continued with euro reaching intra-day high near $1.38.

Applebee’s International, activist investor focus, has agreed to be acquired by IHOP, for $2.1 billion or $25.50 per share, according to a report by WSJ.com. The company has struggled in the last several years with same store sales declining and losing sales in core demographics.

McDonald’s reported June same store sales rise of 8.4% and said that one-time charge related to licensing in Latin America and Caribbean will result in a second quarter loss of 60 cents.

Royal Bank of Scotland has raised its cash portion of its $98 billion offer for ABN Amro Bank. Vodafone, UK based telecom operator, denied reports that it is considering to buy the mobile service operator Verizon.

Ford is mulling the idea of selling its Volvo division to raise funds to pay for losses in its domestic division.

Korean steelmaker, POSCO (PKX: chart), reported better than expected earnings and revised it earnings outlook for the year.


9:30AM London is lower at mid-day as Lonmin leads mining stocks lower.

In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 Index lost 19.10, or 0.3%, to 6,697.60 at mid-day.

Advancers of the Day

Barclays gained 1.2% after Royal Bank sweetened its offer for ABN Amro, in an attempt to outbid Barclays in the world biggest banking takeover.

In broker news, GlaxoSmithKline, the second-largest drugmaker in the world, increased 1.5% after JPMorgan raised its recommendation for the stock to neutral from underweight.

BT Group also climbed 1.2% after Merrill Lynch upped its recommendation for the largest phone company in the U.K. to buy from sell.