Stocks were little changed in choppy trading after being lower on Monday as Europe's debt problems dominated investors' concerns, with the focus heavily on Italy's political turmoil.
Stocks fell on Monday as investors stayed focused on Europe, this time on the political turmoil in debt-burdened Italy, as a reason to sell risky assets.
Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY) reported quarterly earnings per share of 55 cents Monday, topping analyst consensus estimates of 52 cents per share. Revenues for the food service logistics company were markedly higher, $10.59 billion versus analyst estimates of $10.49 billion. Net earnings were $302.65 million, an increase of $3.58 million, or 1.2%, when compared to quarterly earnings from a year ago.
Retailer Best Buy Inc. said it would buy Carphone Warehouse's stake in their U.S. mobile-phone joint venture for about $1.3 billion and plans to close 11 big box stores in the UK as part of its reorganization strategy.
Bank Transfer Day Nov 5 is tomorrow, and as people across America are preparing to stick it to their financial institutions, bank stocks are taking a huge hit and credit unions are seeing a major boon.
The top after market NYSE Losers on Thursday were: MasTec, Linkedin, Venoco, Rosetta Stone, Frontier Communications, International Rectifier, Mohawk Industries, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding, GenOn Energy and Health Care REIT.
The top aftermarket NYSE gainers on Thursday were: Jefferies Group, Con-way, Genpact, Suntech Power Holdings, American Vanguard, Global Cash Access Holdings, CenturyLink, Chesapeake Energy and Alliant Techsystems.
The companies that are expected to see active trade on Friday are: Washington Post, Windstream, MasTec, Aes Corp, Linkedin Corp, Northeast Utilities System, Pepco Holdings, Genpact, Ameren and DTE Energy Co.
The Occupy Wall Street movement gains much of its man-power from Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. It comes as no surprise then that Wall Street has decided to capitalize on this social media force. The New York Stock Exchange is hosting a Social Media Day Friday, which is the first of its kind at the NYSE.
Two other major Dutch banks, ABN AMRO and Rabobank, have already unveiled significant job cuts.
In spite of facing a collapse in interest within the domestic market, having to deal with cross-marketing limits imposed by the airlines and booking less flights and hotels overall, the $202.92 net revenue figure represented a jump of 4.34% from quarterly net revenue a year ago. The company's net earnings, however, were down 26.73 percent from a year ago, as a substantial spike in marketing costs, payroll and Other Expenses ate into the bottom line.
UBS has updated its Tech 10 portfolio by adding semi-packaging/assembly equipment provider ASM Technologies as a least preferred stock.
Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher opening for equities on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones and for the Nasdaq 100 up 0.1 to 0.2 percent.
The top aftermarket NYSE gainers on Wednesday were: NetQin Mobile, Fusion-io, CACI International, UBS AG, AMR Corp, Thor Industries, American Eagle Outfitters, Northstar Realty Finance, CoreLogic and Triangle Capital Corp.
NYSE Euronext , which wants regulatory support for its planned $9 billion merger with Deutsche Boerse , cited strong trading and technology sales for a 54 percent hike in quarterly profit to $186 million.
The top after market NYSE Losers on Wednesday were: RealD Inc, MEMC Electronic Materials, Ion Geophysical, Transocean, Penn Virginia, Walter Energy, Hartford Financial Services Group, Education Realty Trust, Teekay LNG Partners and Polypore International Inc.
The companies that are expected to see active trade on Thursday are: Starbucks Corp., American International Group, First Solar, Qualcomm, Teradata Corp, Chesapeake Energy, NetQin Mobile, NYSE Euronext, RealD, Microchip Technology, MGM Resorts International, Frontier Communications and Duke Energy Corp.
Sony is forecasting a net loss of 90 billion yen ($1.15 billion), versus a prior expectation for a 60 billion yen profit.
Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) said the sale of Pringles to Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) has moved from the front half to the back half of its fiscal year. The deal, which was earlier said to be closed by December 2011, is now expected to close before the end of June 2012.
MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) reported third-quarter earnings of $5.63 per share on revenues of $1.81 billion, blowing past analysts estimates that had expected the company to report earnings of 4.82 per share and revenues in the vicinity of 1.71 billion. Increased volume from international consumers played a role, as did U.S. consumers ditching debit for credit.
After performing better than the wider high-tech market for months, stocks in American video game manufacturers have dropped precipitously since Thursday. Is there a 1UP on the way?
The top after market NYSE gainers on Tuesday were: Stone Energy, Kindred Healthcare, Kinder Morgan, Ferro Corp and ING Group. The top after market NYSE Losers were: Sprint Nextel, Verifone Systems, Masco Corp, SuperValu and Newpark Resources.
