Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday Site Maintenance

Thursday Site Maintenance
A late start tonight as I was purchasing my new fishing license. I thought I would take care of some housekeeping of this site. Judging by the total lack of comments, I imagine nobody will mind! HAHA!

Some earnings headlines from today though:
The Bad
Capital One Financial Corp.'s first-quarter profit fell 19 percent
Marriott International Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter profit dropped 34 percent
City National profit drops 22 percent
Doughnut retailer Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. said Thursday its net loss widened in the fourth quarter due to charges and a dip in doughnut sales
Harley-Davidson Inc. will cut its work force by about 8 percent and curtail shipments of its iconic motorcycles this year after reporting a decline in first-quarter profits Thursday, with domestic sales tumbling nearly 13 percent
Merrill Lynch & Co.,the world's largest brokerage, reported a first-quarter loss on more than $6 billion in additional write-downs and said it would cut 4,000 jobs
Pfizer earnings fall 18 pct, hurt by generic drugs

The Good
Google's 1Q profit climbs 30 pct and tops analyst views
IBM shares rise to highest price in 6 years after earnings

Overall, the markets are pleased with earnings thus far! Wonderful.

I loved the progression of the MER report which at first was worse than expected, which became inline, which morphed into pretty good as the day went along:

Worse Than Expected
Wall Street firm's quarterly loss is even wider than expected -CNNMoney 6:50am
Merrill earnings weigh on financial sector -Marketwatch 9:36am
Not so bad
Merrill's Stock Surges Amid Hope Worst May Be Over -CNBC 2:30pm
All Inline
Merril Lynch reported losses inline with expectation - Radio station WEEI Market report in car 5:00pm

It is all priced into the stock!

I am taking Friday night entertainment (movie clips, rock music, other music) suggestions in the comments section.

Have a good night.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure fire way to get your stock price up, post a massive loss and lay off over 2k people works everytime.

Kevin

EconomicDisconnect said...

Hey Kevin,
Thanks for the comment. At least someone is still here. I have the garden area marked off, and all the necessary tools/supplies. I will make the effort to do the garden prep this weekend. Wish me luck.

Also,
If MER laid off their ENTIRE work force would the stock double up? I wonder who will try that!

Anonymous said...

The stock market has had me puzzled. It is not acting as it should. Today I was ready to throw in the towel on the bear case. That in itself is a contrary indicator.

However, while looking over some stocks I follow after the close, I smell trend exhaustion.

Tomorrow or Monday, the bear market starts for real.

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Anonymous said...

GYSC

I think the banks may be having a poker game and using employees for chips. Citi I'll see your 2900 and raise you 3100.

Good luck on the garden I'll be heading out to the farm to work on the one I have out there after the close. I have to go pick up some eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes and celery plants today also. About another month and the squash, beans, cantaloupes, and watermelons will go in the ground. I can't wait.
Kevin

Anonymous said...

Harley-Davidson Inc. will cut its work force by about 8 percent and curtail shipments of its iconic motorcycles this year after reporting a decline in first-quarter profits Thursday, with domestic sales tumbling nearly 13 percent

-----------------------------------

As I have mentioned before, I have been looking at the new Mustang "Bullitt" (just looking) and after reading the H-D decline I decided to see if the Bullitts I had been looking at had sold yet...Nope, not a one. Not only that but Ford had started a pretty aggressive incentive program and still the dealers had not moved one of these cars (I was only looking in a 150 mile radius from where I live, plus I did not check every single dealer, and I do live in a somewhat depressed area which might explain a little bit of why they hadn't sold).

I'm not saying that this is the end of the world, just that at ground level things do seem to be slowing down a bit.

Anonymous said...

I am still here but midnights are hard for me to spend time online anymore....

G

PS: How does Norfolk Southern rank in railroad companies? www.nscorp.com