In Active Trading Indexes Flat in New York; Netflix, PVH Surge

Bikram Pandey
31 Oct, 2012
New York City

Stocks were little changed and 2.76 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Home Depot and Lowe

[R]4:00 PM New York – Stocks were little changed and 2.76 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Home Depot and Lowe’s traded higher but insurance stocks declined. Apple fell as much as 2% on management overhaul. European markets closed lower and markets in Hong Kong and Tokyo jumped more than 1%.[/R]

Stocks on Wall Street traded volatile after a historic two-day market closure. Markets opened smoothly after the exchanges and market makers coordinated activities and used back up facilities. Natural gas and gold traded higher.

Trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange is expected to cross 2.76 billion shares and on the Nasdaq trading 1.44 billion shares. Of the stocks traded on the NYSE, 53% gained and 45% declined and 260 stocks hit new highs.

The Labor Department is scheduled to release its October employment report as scheduled on November 2, according to a spokesman today. Jobless rate is estimated to increase to 7.9% and payrolls are expected to rise at least 120,000.

Home Depot ((HD)) and Lowe’s ((LOW)) jumped on the expectations of higher sales after Hurricane Sandy.

On the earnings front, American Tower third quarter net dropped 22% and lifted fiscal outlook. BorgWarner quarterly net plunged 29% and revised guidance. Cummins net dropped 22% as sales dropped. GM third quarter net declined 12% and WEX net tumbled 70%.

Apple Inc ((AAPL)) declined as much as 2% after Chief Executive Tim Cook embarked on a sweeping management changes including departure of the senior vice presidents Scott Forstall and John Browett.

Netflix ((NFLX)) jumped 12% after Carl Ichan disclosed in a regulatory filing that he has taken 9.98% stake in the company and said in the filing that he was considering ways for the company to “maximize shareholder value.”

PVH Corp ((PVH)) soared more than 17% after the owner of Tommy Hilfiger brand agreed to acquire Warnaco Group for $2.9 billion and bring all Calvin Klein branded apparel under one company. Warnaco ((WRC)) soared 18%.

European indexes closed lower and the euro area jobless rate rose to a record 11.6% and German retail sales improved in September. FTSE 100 index in London fell 1.1% and CAC 40 index in Paris declined 0.9% and the DAX index in Germany dropped 0.3%.

The UK consumer confidence fell to a six-month low in October.

Barclays and ArcelorMittal slip to quarterly loss. Continental nine-month sales jumped 9.1% to €24.6 billion. Novo Nordisk third quarter sales increased 20%.

Investors shifted attention to domestic earnings news and the Nikkei in Tokyo jumped 1%. Hitachi and Komatsu gained after maintaining annual earnings outlook and Fuji Heavy soared 7% after lifting earnings estimate.

Australian stocks closed higher after residential building approvals increased 7.8% in September. National Australian Bank reported full year revenues increased 5.2% and net income dropped 22% to $4.08 billion on losses and restructuring charges linked to UK operations.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

U.S. treasury yield on 10-year bond decreased to 1.68% and on 30-year bond fell to 2.85%.

The U.S. dollar inched lower to $1.296 to a euro and increased against the Japanese yen to 79.72 yen.

Immediate delivery futures of Texas crude oil increased 46 to $86.14 a barrel and Brent crude fell 44 cents to $108.63, futures of natural gas decreased 0.01 cents to $3.70 per mbtu and gasoline traded up 3.3 cents to 276.17 cents a gallon.

In metals trading, copper increased 0.90 cents to $3.51 per pound, gold increased $9.10 to $1,721.20 per ounce and silver increased 47 cents to $32.26.