iPhone Launch Attracts Worldwide Fans, Global Indexes Higher

Arthi Gupta
21 Sep, 2012
New York City

U.S. indexes gained on the rising hopes that Spain may request a formal bailout as early as next week. iPhone 5 launch attracted worldwide fans and sales are expected to exceed 10 million in two weeks. Oracle quarterly earnings rose 11%. KB Home swung to quarterly profit.

[R]10:10 AM New York – U.S. indexes gained on the rising hopes that Spain may request a formal bailout as early as next week. iPhone 5 launch attracted worldwide fans and sales are expected to exceed 10 million in two weeks. Oracle quarterly earnings rose 11%. KB Home swung to quarterly profit.[/R]

U.S. indexes climbed on optimism that Spain may request a formal bailout as early as next week and the euro advanced against the dollar.

Markets around the world have surged in the last two weeks after central banks in the U.S., Europe and Japan offered additional monetary steps to provide additional liquidity and support asset prices.

European indexes edged higher on the rising speculation that the Spain is near finalizing the request for a larger bailout and Italy deepened its estimate of economic contraction. Yields of bonds Spain and Italy turned lower.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and coalition partners failed to agree on €11.5 billion spending cuts necessary to get the next tranche of the bailout from the troika.

Asian stocks gained on Spanish bailout hopes and the benchmark index in Mumbai, India soared 2.2%, the largest one day gain this year after the government held firm in permitting direct investment in retail, aviation and broadcasting sectors.

WTO Lowers Trade Expansion Outlook

The World Trade Organization downgraded its 2012 forecast for world trade expansion to 2.5% from 3.7% and scaled back its 2013 estimate to 4.5% from 5.6%.

iPhone 5 Launch Attracts Worldwide Fans

Apple Inc ((AAPL)) gained as the company launched the sale of its latest mobile phone today. Early buyers formed lines at Apple stores days ago and the company is expected to sell at least 10 million units worldwide in less than 2 week.

Demand at stores in Australia were running ahead of the supply on the first day of the iPhone 5 launch and hours later stores in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, UK, France and Germany reported higher than expected demands.

Stores in the U.S. and Canada also saw large number of early buyers waiting outside the stores from Miami to Vancouver. Apple plans to launch the phone in additional 22 countries a week later and earlier said it received 2 million orders on the first day it began accepting orders online.

Trulia IPO Surges 41%

Trulia Inc., the online real-estate listing company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday under the ticker symbol """"TRLA.""""

Trulia sold 6 million shares priced at $17 each, above its expected price range between $14 and $16 a share.

The company sold 5 million shares of common stock in the offering and certain selling stockholders offered another 1 million shares raising $85 million in gross proceeds.

The online real estate listing company was valued at $449 million based on the offer price of $17.

For the first six months of 2012, the revenues surged 79% from the same period a year ago to $29 million. Net loss in the period widened to $7.6 million compared to a loss of $2.6 million in the period in 2011.

The stock soared 41% on the first day to close at $24 a share and gained another 4% in trading today.

Earnings Review

Cintas Corporation ((CTAS)), the uniform supplier reported first quarter revenues grew 3.4% to $1.05 billion. Net profit climbed 11.8% to $76.7 million or 60 cents per diluted share from $68.6 million or 52 cents per share last year.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. ((DRI)), the full-service restaurant company reported first quarter net sales climbed to $2.03 billion from $1.94 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Net earnings in the quarter increased to $110.8 million or 85 cents a diluted share from $106.6 million or 78 cents per share a year ago.

KB Home ((KBH)), the homebuilder reported third quarter revenues increased 16% to $424.5 million, reflecting growth in the number of homes delivered and a higher average selling price. Net income in the quarter swung to $3.3 million or 4 cents per diluted share compared to a loss of $9.6 million or 13 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter.

Oracle Corporation ((ORCL)), the enterprise software company said first quarter total revenue fell 2% to $8.18 billion from a year ago. Net income in the quarter rose 11% to $2 billion or 41 cents a diluted share compared to $1.8 billion or 36 cents per share for the year-ago quarter.