Morning News Bulletin

Tuesday Jan 6th, 2008

Late Edition

9am

 

 

 

 

Economic Numbers

10:00am   ISM Non-Manf. Composite      est. 36.5         range 34.0 to 42.0           prior 37.3

10:00am   Factory Orders                          est. –2.3%     range –6.5% to –0.4%   prior –5.1%

10:00am   Pending Home Sales MoM      est. –1.0%     range –5.0% to 1.5%      prior –0.7%

 2:00pm   FOMC Minutes                     

Technical                    Moving Averages          

                                               

                                50-Day                   200-Day

                                                               

S&P                     887                              1180 

Dow                     8651                           10907 

NASDAQ            1550                           2107

                                               

Futures

S&P futures vs fair value: +10.40. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +13.00.

 

Pre-Market Movers
Gapping up:

IDEV +72.6%, RTP +6.0%, BBY +4.0%, MT +3.5%, BHP +3.2%, SNY +1.6%...

Gapping down:

MEAS -9.1%, LDK -9.0%, YGE -6.9%, RBS -6.8%, MOS -6.7%, ENDP -5.2%, STP -4.1%, JASO -2.9%, FSLR -2.1%, GLD -1.8%.

 

Tuesday Jan 6th , 2008 Top News Stories
TM Toyota  Reuters reports Toyota (TM) is to halt production at all its Japanese plants for a total of 11 days in February and March in a bid to reduce stocks of unsold cars as demand has slumped. Toyota's sales in the United States, its biggest market, dropped 37% last month, it's weakest performance in more than a quarter of a century and worse than struggling U.S. rivals General Motors (GM) and Ford (F).

 

Tuesday Jan 6th, 2008

Earnings/Guidance

LH LabCorp cuts 2009 EPS view to $4.75-$4.95 from $5-$5.25.Co reaffirms 2008 adjusted EPS view $4.57-$4.61

AMED AMEDISYS Co issues upside guidance for FY09 (Dec), sees EPS of $4.10-4.30 vs. $3.82 First Call consensus; sees FY09 (Dec) revs of $1.425-1.475 bln vs. $1.41 bln consensus.
SMCI Super Micro Computer  Co issues downside guidance for Q2 (Dec), sees EPS of $0.15-0.16, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.17 First Call consensus; sees Q2 (Dec) revs of $127.0-129.0 mln vs. $143.50 mln consensus.
VIGN VignetteCo issues downside guidance for Q4 (Dec), sees EPS of $(0.05)-0.05, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.08 First Call consensus; sees Q4 (Dec) revs of $35.0-37.0 mln vs. $44.00 mln consensus.
MEAS Measurement Specialties Co issues downside guidance for Q3 (Dec), sees Q3 (Dec) revs of $43.0 mln vs. $50.00 mln First Call consensus. Co issues downside guidance for FY09 (Mar), sees FY09 (Mar) revs of $205-215 mln vs. $219.90 mln consensus.

 

Other Stock News

DOW Dow Chemical confirms commitment to transformational corporate strategy

Monday Jan 5th , 2008

Earnings/Guidance
MOS Mosaic  Reports Q2 (Nov) earnings of $1.53 per share, excluding $0.41 charge and a $1.03 gain, $0.10 better than the First Call consensus of $1.43; revenues rose 36.9% year/year to $3.01 bln vs the $3 bln consensus. MOS ended Q2 with $2.8 bln in cash and cash equivalents. Co's total debt as of November 30, 2008 was $1.4 bln compared to $1.7 bln as of November 30, 2007. Co says long-term world grain and oilseed use is expected to continue to increase at a faster pace than historical trends due to steady population growth, higher per capita incomes and further increases in biofuels production.
LDK LDK Solar Co issues downside guidance for Q4 (Dec), sees Q4 (Dec) revs of $425-435 vs. $540.53 mln First Call consensus and wafer shipments between 245 to 255 MW and gross margin between 10% and 13%. This compares to its previously issued guidance for the fourth quarter of 2008 of revenue in the range of $555 to $565 million and wafer shipments in the range of 260 to 270 MW, and gross margin between 18% and 21%. Co issues downside guidance for FY09 (Dec), sees FY09 (Dec) revs of $2300-2500 vs. $2.6 bln consensus and wafer shipments between 1.57-1.67 GW and gross margin between 22% and 27%.
IMN Imation Co issues downside guidance for Q4 (Dec), sees Q4 (Dec) revs of $530-540 vs. $570.00 mln First Call consensus. Driven by these revenue levels and margin pressures, the Company clearly will not meet its prior earnings outlook and could report a fourth quarter operating loss of up to $7 million before restructuring and other charges.

 

Other Stock News

UAUA UAL Corp. reports mainline traffic results for December; load factor of 79.9%
IDEV Indevus Pharm Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) and Indevus Pharmaceuticals announce that they have entered into a merger agreement under which Endo will commence a tender offer to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Indevus for ~$370 mln, or $4.50 per Indevus share, in cash, and up to an additional ~$267 mln, or $3.00 per Indevus share, in cash payable in the future upon achievement of certain regulatory and sales milestones.

LAD Lithia Motors suspends quarterly dividend due to the current economic environment

GET Gaylord Entertain Reports Hospitality segment operating results for November 2008; co announces repurchase of $45.8 mln in outstanding senior notes
AMR American Airlines Co reported a December load factor of 79.2%, an increase of 0.4 point versus the same period last year. Traffic decreased 8.2% and capacity decreased 8.6 percent year over year. Domestic traffic decreased 9.6 percent year over year on 11.8% less capacity. International traffic decreased by 5.7% relative to last year on a capacity decrease of 3.2%.

Secondary Offerings/IPO’s
 

S&P Index Changes

 

Cramer's 'Mad Money'
On Monday's edition, Jim calls Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) a cheap growth stock trading at 8.7x forward EPS and believes shares are worth at least $42 to $46. He favors the co's diversity compared to Dell (DELL) and its acquisition of EDS, which allows HPQ to further diversify into IT services, while aggressively cutting costs.

 

Early Newspaper Headlines

 

On The Wires
Ducommun (DCO) announces that its Ducommun AeroStructures subsidiary, has been awarded follow-on contracts from The Boeing Company (BA) for AH-64 Apache helicopter main and tail rotor blades for use as both original equipment and replacement blades... FTI Consulting (FCN) announces that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of CXO, an interim and turnaround management services firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed... Walt Disney World (DIS) and Environmental Tectonics Corp (ETC) jointly announce a confidential final settlement of all litigation relating to the design and development of the Mission: Space attraction at EPCOT.

European Markets
FTSE...4619.60...+40.00...+0.90%DAX...5048.32...+64.40...+1.30%.

Asian Markets
Nikkei...9080.84...+37.70...+0.40%.
 Hang Seng...15509.51...-53.80...-0.40%.

 

Upgrades

Company

Ticker

Brokerage Firm

Ratings Change

Price Target

YRC Worldwide

YRCW

Wachovia

Underperform » Mkt Perform

 

BMC Software

BMC

UBS

Neutral » Buy

 

Apple

AAPL

Oppenheimer

Perform » Outperform

$135

Google

GOOG

Merriman Curhan Ford

Sell » Neutral

 

 

Downgrades

Company

Ticker

Brokerage Firm

Ratings Change

Price Target

JA Solar

JASO

Collins Stewart

Buy » Hold

 

Penn Natl Gaming

PENN

SMH Capital

Buy » Neutral

 

Travelers

TRV

Bernstein

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

Coventry Health Care

CVH

Deutsche Securities

Hold » Sell

 

CIGNA

CI

Deutsche Securities

Buy » Hold

 

ACE Limited

ACE

Bernstein

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

CNA Financial

CNA

Bernstein

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

Chubb

CB

Bernstein

Outperform » Underperform

 

XL Capital

XL

Bernstein

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

Indevus Pharm

IDEV

Piper Jaffray

Buy » Neutral

 

Allstate

ALL

Bernstein

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

American Intl

AIG

Bernstein

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

Huron Consulting

HURN

Deutsche Securities

Buy » Hold

 

Itron

ITRI

JP Morgan

Overweight » Neutral

 

Intersil

ISIL

JP Morgan

Overweight » Neutral

 

IntercontinentalExchange

ICE

UBS

Buy » Neutral

 

Nucor

NUE

UBS

Buy » Neutral

 

Devon Energy

DVN

Barclays Capital

Overweight » Equal Weight

 

Nexen

NXY

Barclays Capital

Overweight » Equal Weight

 

Allscripts

MDRX

Leerink Swann

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

California Water

CWT

Robert W. Baird

Outperform » Neutral

$45 » $48

Puget Energy

PSD

Robert W. Baird

Outperform » Neutral

$30

Celgene

CELG

Robert W. Baird

Outperform » Neutral

$68 » $62

Super Micro Computer

SMCI

Merriman Curhan Ford

Buy » Neutral

 

Quality Systems

QSII

Leerink Swann

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

Medtronic

MDT

Leerink Swann

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

Cerner

CERN

Leerink Swann

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

AthenaHealth

ATHN

Leerink Swann

Outperform » Mkt Perform

 

9am

 

*The information contained herein has been compiled from various public news sources and from the public domain. Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services LLC provides this information solely as a convenience to its traders. Neither Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services LLC nor its data or content providers make any representation or recommendation as to the stocks identified herein, nor shall they shall be liable for any errors in the content, or for any damages as a result of actions taken in reliance on this information. This material does not constitute nor should be considered stock research on the part of Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services LLC. Trade at your own risk.

 

For internal use only.