Mixed Trading

123jump.com Staff
30 Nov, -0001
New York City

In the morning trading hour news on oil, MidAmerican purchase of PacifiCorp for $4.5 B cash plus debt, and news on Dollar and gold drove investors on selective buying. OECD trims the developed economy forecast, Vodafon in the UK narrows loss, Gruner+Jahr to sell the U.S. magazine group, and Microsoft and Google in race to enhance visual search experience.

Markets in the opening hours traded on the news on oil, dollar, gold and merger news.

Oil traded above $49 at $49.05 on several conflicting news from OPEC, worries on the refinery capacity shortage this summer in the U.S. U.S. dollar traded mixed against currencies in Europe and Japan. Gold inched higher in the early morning trading in NY.

Dillard's retailer posted 1Q 29% profit drop, or 46 cents per share vs. 64 cents last year due to disappointing sales. The company missed estimates of 54 cents a share. The stock is down 8% in the morning trading.

Perry Ellis, clothing maker, reported 1Q profit rise of 8% or 89 cents per share exceeding analysts' estimates of 83 cents per share and reaffirming its 2006 outlook.

Gamestop, entertainment software retailer, announced 1Q record sales increase of 27.7% and net earnings of 19 cents per diluted share which translates to 23 % increase from the same period last year. The stock is up 4.5% in the morning trading.

Williams Sonoma, home retailer, reported 1Q profit jump of 22% on higher sales & revenue, and net earnings of 22 cents a share vs. 18 cents a year ago beating estimates by 3 cents. The stock is trading unchanged.

Toro posted 2Q record net earnings of $1.33 per diluted share vs. $1.0 last year on 14% sales growth. The company raised 2006 guidance. The stock is down 5.7%.

Applied Imaging released 1Q net loss of 11 cents a share vs. 16 cents last year.

MidAmerican Energy agreed to buy PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion in cash and assume $4.3 billion in debt. Warren Buffet controlled combined company will serve 3 million natural gas customers in six contiguous states in the North Western U.S. region. The combined company will have $10 billion in revenue.

Vodafone, UK mobile phone operator, reported lower net loss for the current fiscal year, lowered the revenue outlook to 6%-9% revenue growth for the next year, declared dividend of 4.07 pence. Total loss narrowed to British pound of 7.54 billion from 9.02 billion pounds.

Bertelsmann, German based media group, said today that it will sell its U.S. magazine business. The $400 million group includes titles such as Fast Company and Family Cirlce.

Paris based club of developed nations, OECD, reduced the economic growth forecast for Europe to 2.6% from 2.9%, and raised that for the U.S. to 3.6% from 3.3% and that for Japan lowered to 1.5% from 2.1%.

Taiwan stocks closed higher supported by second-half optimism for LCD panel market outlook. The shares of AU Optronics and Quanta Display traded up by 0.7% and 0.6% respectively.

Japanese shares index Nikkei closed higher despite the data from Ministry of Trade and Industry that in March economic activity index fell 0.5% from previous month lower than the estimates of 0.4%.

Asian markets on Tuesday closed unchanged except Thailand index lost 1.04% and Australia closed up 0.74%. Higher oil prices and lower dollar helped resources companies in Australia and News Corp stock traded up on the recent Star Wars sequel.