Wall Street Surges on Euro Hopes, Bernanke Speech Looms

Arthi Gupta
31 Aug, 2012
New York City

U.S. indexes shot up at the opening on the prospect of new actions from the ECB. Investors are focused on the world meeting of central bankers where the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak later today. SAIC planned to separate into two publicly traded companies.

[R]9:55 AM New York – U.S. indexes shot up at the opening on the prospect of new actions from the ECB. Investors are focused on the world meeting of central bankers where the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak later today. SAIC planned to separate into two publicly traded companies.[/R]

Market indexes on Wall Street surged at opening on the hopes that the Fed chairman may announce new measures to support economic growth and on the comments from officials at the European Central Bank.

Expectations of actions from central banks remain high on both sides of the Atlantic and latest comments from Benoit Coeure, ECB executive board member said that the central bank would take all steps in its power to preserve the euro. The comments lifted market indexes in Europe after early declines in the day.

Euro zone inflation climbed to 2.6% in August and jobless rate rose to a record 11.3% in July.

Japan''s core consumer prices declined 0.3% annually the jobless rate held steady at 4.3% and industrial production dropped 1.2% on a monthly basis in July.

India''s gross domestic product expanded 5.5% annually during April to June, data from the Central Statistics Office showed.

SAIC Plans to Split into Two Companies

SAIC announced a plan to separate into two independent companies and separate its government technical services from enterprise information technology group

The spin-off is expected to occur in the latter half of next fiscal year.

Earnings Review

Esterline Technologies Corporation ((ESL)), the engineered products manufacturer said third quarter net sales increased to $486 million from $409.5 million in the prior year. Net loss for the quarter swung to $17 million or 55 cents per diluted share compared to net income of $37.7 million or $1.21 per share last year.

SAIC, Inc. ((SAI)), the government contractor said second quarter revenues rose 10% to $2.85 billion from the same quarter last year. Net income in the quarter fell to $110 million or 32 cents per diluted share compared to $178 million or 50 cents per share for the year-ago quarter.

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. ((OVTI)), the digital imaging solutions developer said first quarter revenues declined to $258.1 million from $276.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Net income in the quarter fell to $2.3 million or 4 cents per diluted share compared to net income of $42 million or 68 cents per diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal 2012.