Lackluster Trading

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

Oil trades above $51 as three-day weekend bring driving season in full force. Overnight Asian markets closed higher with Seoul jumping near 2% and Tokyo up 1.49% on strength of tech stocks. Chico's reproted 36% jump in earnings.

Three-day holiday weekend will bring 31 million travelers on the road, keeping this in mid, oil traders in NY have pushed oil up by 1% today and 5% for the week. Oil in the morning is trading at $51.50 per barrel.

Last night three Computer Associates, Chico’s, restoration Hardware released their earnings.

Chico's, apparel retailer, reported 1Q earnings of 26 cents vs. 20 cents a year ago on 27% increase in sales and 10.8% increase in same-store sales. The stock is up 10% in the morning trading.

Restoration Hardware, accessories retailer, reported 1Q loss of 9 cents vs. 12 cents a year ago on revenue rise of 19%.

Computer Associates, management software company, reported 4Q profit of 3 cents vs. 5 cents a year ago, including one-time items and 20 cents excluding these charges meeting the estimates.

Credence Systems, testing equipment and software maker, reported 2Q profit of 21 cents vs. 9 cents a year ago and excluding acquisition related charges the company recorded 9 cents of loss.

Brown Shoe Company reported 1Q profit of 20 cents vs. 45 cents a year ago due to acquisition related charges. Excluding these charges in both years the earnings would have been 74 cents vs. 56 cents. The same-store sales at Famous Footwear retail chain grew by 1.5% and total sales by 6%. The company lowered the guidance for the full year to $2.30-$2.45 per share.


South American exchanges were calm at mid-day trading; however market in Brazil was down 1.8% and Real hit three-year high against U.S. dollar and traded below Real 2.4 to a dollar.

European averages at mid-day were trading sideways on light volume. Banking and tech stocks were higher in UK, Germany and Italy on the merger talk news between Unicredito Italiano in Italy and HVB in Germany and tech stocks in Amsterdam and Paris were up on strengths in the U.S. semiconductor stocks.

German upper house of parliament approved EU constitution two days ahead of ratification vote in France. France and Netherlands are experiencing sizable opposition to the favorable vote the constitution. Eight of 25 EU member countries have already ratified the constitution including Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Lithuania, Slovenia, Hungary and Slovakia. All members are required to ratify the constitution before it becomes effective.

According to newspaper reports in Europe, Unicredito Italiano in Italy is in talks to acquire HVB, German bank for euro 16 billion, largest cross-border European transaction ever.

Italian stock market regulators approved plans for Parmalat to list its shares on Milan stock exchange as a part of settlement with creditors. The dairy company has been involved in foreign subsidiary scandal involving one of the largest Italian scandals of $17 billion.

In overnight trading Seoul, Tokyo, and HK gained sharply on the news of faster economic growth rate in the U.S. Three indexes closed up 1.8%, 1.49% and 1.07% respectively. Taipei, Mumbai and Sydney closed better than 0.5% each.

Technology shares in Tokyo and Seoul traded higher. In Tokyo Cannon rose 2.2%, Kyocera rose 2.9% and TDK rose 2.6%. In Seoul Hynix Semiconductor rose 4.8%, Samsung Electronics rose 1.7%, and LG.Philips rose 1.2%. Infosys in India completed its secondary offering where more than 10 million shares were sold by investors in India to foreign investors. The company did not receive any proceeds from sale. Infosys increased its float by 6% in its ADR.