YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Equities began today's session on a slightly
negative note. After reaching session lows before the European close, stocks
staged a slow recovery but were unable to break into positive territory. The
S&P 500 ended lower by 0.1%.
Consumer staples were one of the top performing sectors. Within the group, Sysco (SYY 30.14, +1.30) jumped 4.5% after
reporting earnings and revenues ahead of expectations. Campbell Soup (CPB 34.35, +1.04) also contributed to
strength within the space. The packaged food producer gained 3.1% after Goldman
Sachs upgraded the stock from ‘sell' to ‘conviction buy.'
The materials sector was the weakest performer, with the biggest laggards found
in metal producers. United States Steel
(X 22.86, -0.55) ended lower by 2.4% and Olympic Steel (ZEUS 16.42, -0.41) was down 2.4%.
However, paper producers outperformed the rest of the sector. Shares of International Paper (IP 33.94, +1.31) gained 4.0% after
Credit Suisse upgraded the company's stock from ‘neutral' to ‘outperform.' Louisiana-Pacific (LPX 12.56, +0.56) rose 4.7% as the stock
marked a new 52-week high.
Google (GOOG 660.01, +18.01)
advanced 2.8% after the company announced up to 4,000 jobs will be cut from its
Motorola Mobility business. Reports also indicated that Google will buy the Frommer's brand from publisher John Wiley & Sons (JW.B 47.41, -0.25). Today's bid put
shares of Google at a level not seen since mid-April.
Meanwhile, Yelp
(YELP 23.87, -1.98) and TripAdvisor (TRIP 33.52, -1.58) slumped 7.7% and 4.5%
respectively on concerns that Google's purchase of Frommer's
will increase competition in the travel publishing business.
Sears Holdings (SHLD 54.36, +2.94) surged
5.7% after announcing plans to spin off about 1,200 stores which will be listed
under the ticker ‘SHOS.' In addition, a Barron's story published over the
weekend suggested that Sears' controlling investor may be engineering a
‘slow-motion liquidation' which could lead to a doubling of the share price.
The volatility index, or the VIX, slid 6.7%, to 13.75. The VIX is currently at
levels last seen in June of 2007.
Groupon
(GRPN 7.55, +0.11) gained 1.5% ahead of its earnings release after the close.
The consensus calls for earnings of $0.03 on revenues of $573.45 million.
Shares of the online deal site are down more than 61% from its November 2011
IPO price of $20.00.
With the earnings season drawing to a close, a handful companies have yet to
report their earnings. A few notable retailers will headline tomorrow's
releases. Dick's Sporting Goods
(DKS 50.54, +0.19) is expected to earn $0.63 on $1.42 billion in revenues while
analysts expect Home Depot
(52.82, -0.24) to report earnings of $0.98 on revenues of $20.74 billion.
Two notable apparel retailers are also scheduled to report tomorrow morning. Michael Kors
(KORS 42.35, +0.03) is expected to earn $0.20 on $367.96 million revenues while
TJX Companies (TJX 44.24, -0.22) is expected to report
earnings of $0.55 on revenues of $5.93 billion.
Today's volume was well below average with just over 484 million shares traded
on the
Crude oil rallied in morning pit action on concerns in the Middle
East following reports noting that an oil tanker struck a U.S. Navy ship near
the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. However, the Strait remained open and
shipping through the waterway was not affected. Despite the early strength, the
energy component sold-off sharply off its session high of $94.14 per barrel and
fell into the red after equity markets opened. Crude dipped to a session low of
$92.03 per barrel but managed to erase most of its losses as it settled at
$92.76 per barrel, 0.2% lower.
Natural gas spent most of floor trade chopping around in negative territory
after it slid off its session high of $2.79 per MMBtu.
It finished at its session low of $2.73 per MMBtu, or
1.4% lower.
Precious metals trended lower on the lack of news even with a weaker dollar.
Gold gave up its overnight gains and spent the majority of its pit session in
the red, selling off sharply as it headed into the close. The yellow metal
settled with a 0.7% loss at $1611.60 per ounce, just above its session low of
$1611.50 per ounce. Silver touched a session high of $28.02 per ounce in early
morning action and dipped to a session low of $27.72 per ounce moments before
closing with a loss of 1.0% at $27.77 per ounce.
Tomorrow's economic data includes retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, PPI, and
core PPI, all of which will be reported at 8:30 AM ET. In addition, business
inventories will be released at 10 AM ET.DJ30 -38.52 NASDAQ +1.66 SP500 -1.76
NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1068/1.31 bln/1363 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1112/484.1 mln/1887