Fed Meeting in View, Netflix Net Up 88%; Silver, Gold in 8-day Rally

Bikram Pandey
25 Apr, 2011
New York City

U.S. indexes struggled after a mixed batch of earnings on Monday. However, earnings from financial services and tech companies have exceeded expectations so far. Kimberly-Clark

[R]4:30 PM New York – U.S. indexes struggled after a mixed batch of earnings on Monday. However, earnings from financial services and tech companies have exceeded expectations so far. Kimberly-Clark’ first quarter earnings dropped 9% and RadioShack earnings dropped 30%. Netflix net soared 88%.[/R]

U.S. stocks struggled after a mixed batch of earnings and leading indicators index rose in March. Investors turned cautious after Kimberly-Clark reported 9% decline in its first quarter earnings and RadioShack earnings dropped 30%.

Fed’s rate setting meeting is scheduled to leave rates unchanged after the two-day meeting that ends on Wednesday. Fed Chairman is expected to hold first-ever press conference immediately after the policy meeting.

Barrick Gold agreed to acquire Equinox Minerals for about C$7.3 billion. Toyota global production dropped more than 30% in March.

After the close, Netflix Inc, the closely watched video renal service provider reported first quarter earnings increased 88% to $60 million or $1.11 a share compared to $32 million or 59 cents a share. Revenues increased 46% to $719 million.

Advanced Micro Devices first quarter net income doubled. E. I. du Pont first quarter net income soared 27% to $1.43 billion. Kimberly-Clark first quarter net income declined 9%. Verizon first quarter net income soared 41% to $3.26 billion.

The confidence index among French manufacturers was flat in April. Hungarian retail sales improved and Italian sales grew in February. Austrian industrial output rose in February. Dutch consumer spending improved in February. Spain producer price inflation climbed in March.

Stocks in Japan edged lower ahead of earnings release. Toyota led the automakers with the domestic auto production plunging 63% in March. Toyota’s global production declined 30% in the month. Domestic production at Honda dropped 63% and at Nissan fell 52%.

Stocks in Mumbai traded higher but in a directionless trading and silver and gold surged to highs. Reliance Industries confirmed the difficulty of increasing gas output and also planned to increase production at fields in the Bay of Bengal. Sterlite and Maruti reported higher than expected earnings.

Markets in Australia, Germany and UK were closed today.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

The 10-year bond yield decreased to 3.36% and 30-year bond fell to 4.46%.

The U.S. dollar decreased to $1.4587 to a euro and fell against the Japanese yen to 81.83 yen.

Immediate delivery futures of Texas crude oil decreased $0.12 to $112.18 a barrel, of natural gas decreased 0.03 cents to $4.38 per mbtu and gasoline prices increased 1.06 cents to 331.92 cents a gallon.

In metals trading, copper prices decreased 10.2 cents to $4.31 per pound, gold increased $5.30 to $1,509.10 per ounce and silver increased $1.09 to $47.15.