U.S. Stocks Climb on Earnings and $45 Bilion Time Warner Cable Deal

Nichole Harper
13 Feb, 2014
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street advanced after struggling in the early trading. Better than expected earnings helped to reverse sentiment offsetting the weak retail sales and jobs data. Goodyear Tire, CBS and Applied Materials reported better than expected quarterly results.

[R]3:10 PM New York – Stocks on Wall Street advanced after struggling in the early trading. Better than expected earnings helped to reverse sentiment offsetting the weak retail sales and jobs data. Goodyear Tire, CBS and Applied Materials reported better than expected quarterly results.[/R]

Stocks on Wall Street reversed early morning weakness and staged a steady advance after positive string of earnings helped to win investors over weak economic data.

Time Warner Cable Inc. soared after Comcast agreed to acquire the second largest cable network operator.

The deal between the two cable company amounts to $70 billion when included debt in the transaction and is the largest deal announced in the year so far and the third largest since the financial crisis.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. gained more than 3% after earnings were ahead of expectations. Applied Materials Inc advanced 4% after the latest quarterly sales were better than expected. Cisco Systems Inc struggled and fell 3% after cautious quarterly revenues outlook.

S&P 500 index increased 0.6% or 10.47 to 1,829.74 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 35.74 or 0.9% to 4,236.92.

Retail sales in January declined 0.4% after a revised 0.1% fall in December, according to the Commerce Department.

In a separate report released by the Labor Department showed jobless claims increased 8,000 to 339,000 in the week ending on Feb 8.

European Markets

In London trading, FTSE 100 index dropped 0.6% or 37.71 to 6,637.32 and in Frankfurt the DAX index rose 0.2% or 24 to 9,564.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slid 0.1% or 3.94 to 4,301.56.

U.S. Stocks in Review

CBS Corp ((CBS)) increased 3% to $64.10 after the company reported higher than expected profit and enlarged its stock buyback program by $1.5 billion.

Cisco Systems, Inc ((CSCO)) dropped 4.7% or $1.08 to $21.76 after the networking products maker reported revenue in the second-quarter ending on January 25 declined 7.8% to $11.2 billion.

Net income in the quarter plunged 54.5% to $1.4 billion or 27 cents a diluted share compared to $3.1 billion or 59 cents.

Cisco eased after revenue outlook for the current quarter was weaker than expected by analysts.

Comcast Corporation ((CMCSA)) slumped 3.6% or $1.99 to $53.26 after the cable operators agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for about $45.2 billion or $158.82 per share.

The combined company holds about 30 million subscribers that represent 30% of the U.S. pay television video market.

Shares of Charter Communications, Inc tumbled 9% to $125.19.

PepsiCo, Inc ((PEP)) slumped 2.9% or $2.38 to $79.11 after the food and beverage company reported net revenue in the fourth-quarter ending on December 28 rose 1% to $20.12 billion.

Net income in the quarter jumped 5% to $1.74 billion or $1.12 a diluted share compared to $1.66 billion or $1.06.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. ((WFM)) plunged 7.6% or $4.24 to $51.22 after the organic foods supermarket operator said total sales in the first-quarter ending on January 19 climbed 10% $4.2 billion. Comparable store sales in the quarter jumped 5.4%.

Net income in the quarter grew 3.7% to $158 million or 42 cents a diluted share compared to $146 million or 39 cents.

The company forecasted sales growth of 11% to 12%, comparable store sales growth of 5.5% to 6.2%, and diluted earnings per share of $1.58 to $1.65.

The company said it is lowering prices to attract more customers as the retailer of expensive organic foods sets up more stores in smaller cities and face more competition from local chains.

Co-CEO Walter Robb said in a statement that the company estimates demand for 1,200 Whole Foods stores in the U.S. in the long term and the retailer currently manages 370 locations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.