Dell Postpones Q3 Profit

Elena
16 Nov, 2006
New York City

U.S. stock futures traded little changed Thursday morning, with investors awaiting consumer inflation data release. Quarterly earnings reports are expected from Hewlett-Packard, Sears Holdings, Starbucks, and Gap Inc. Dell Inc. postponed its quarterly financial report as the SEC stepped up its probe into the accounting practices of the company.

[R]9:00AM U.S. stock futures were little changed ahead of CPI data.[/R]
U.S. stock futures traded little changed Thursday morning, with investors awaiting consumer inflation data release. Inflation is seen lower by 0.3% in October, but the core measure, excluding food and energy prices, is expected to have rise by 0.2%. Weekly jobless claims, October industrial production and capacity utilization and the Philly Fed survey are also due out today.

Among companies in focus will be Hertz Global Holdings and KBR Inc., as two closely followed initial public offerings. Hertz ((HTZ)), car-rental company, priced at $15 a share, below the expected range of $16 to $18 a share. The firm raised $1.32 billion. KBR ((KBR)), a spin-off of Halliburton, priced at $17 a share, at the top end of its $15-to-$17 share range. The sale of KBR shares raised $441 million for the parent company.

Dell Inc. ((DELL)) was scheduled to release quarterly results Thursday, but postponed the quarterly financial report as the SEC stepped up its probe into the accounting practices of one of the personal computers maker. Dell shares declined over 2% in Germany. Applied Materials ((AMAT)) also dropped in Germany after the chip-equipment maker forecasted sales below analyst estimates.

Quarterly earnings reports are expected from Hewlett-Packard ((HPQ)), Sears Holdings ((SHLD)), Starbucks Corp. ((SBUX)), and Gap Inc ((GPS)). In corporate news, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ((WMT)) said Thursday it is expanding its $4 generic prescription program to 11 additional states and adding 17 more prescriptions to the program. The world''s largest retailer added 502 stores to those offering the discounted medications. In all, Wal-Mart is offering the program in 3,009 stores in 38 states. Wal-Mart said it intends to continue to push for expansion to other states as quickly as possible.

Dow Jones futures were recently up 1 point, S&P 500 futures were off 0.9 point, and Nasdaq futures rose 0.2 of a point.


[R]7:30AM Asian stocks finish mixed Thursday, Japan slips, HK surges.[/R]
Asian markets finished mixed on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 Average in Japan ended the session 0.5% lower at 16,163.87. Canon rose 0.2%, while consumer-electronics and entertainment conglomerate Sony retreated from earlier gains to end even on the day. Nintendo shed 2.6% after touching an all-time high in intraday trading.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group saw its shares decline 2.7%. Business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on Thursday that the biggest bank by assets in Japan is considering raising its annual dividend to 10,000 yen a share, amid booming earnings.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 0.3% to 19,154.07, extending its record run after closing above the 19,000-level for the first time on Wednesday. Trading in Hong Kong was dominated by institutional investors building positions in Chinese financial stocks.

Shares of Bank of China soared 4.9% to a record close. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China gained 0.8%, but China Construction Bank fell 0.7%. The China Enterprises Index rose 0.9% to 8,312.41. The index all-time high is 9,452.86, set on Dec. 19, 1993.
Australia S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.7% lower at 5,392.60, New Zealand NZX-50 Index shed 0.5%, Indonesia JSX Composite lost 0.1% and South Korea Kospi eased 0.1%. Malaysia KLSE Composite gained 0.9%, Taiwan Weighted Price Index added 0.3%, Singapore Straits Times Index gained 0.8%, and Shanghai''s Composite Index rose 1%.


[R]6:30AM European markets trade flat Thursday morning on banking stocks.[/R]
European markets traded flat in early session on Thursday. By mid morning, London FTSE 100 gained 0.1 % to 6,237.6, Frankfurt Xetra Dax was marginally lower at 6,428.54, and the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.1 % to 5,507.39.

Advancers

In Europe, carmakers were in focus as Volkswagen shares rose 2 % on speculation that German rival Porsche was to make a full bid for the company after raising its stake to 29.9%.
Porsche, which J.P. Morgan upgraded to neutral from underweight, gained 4.2 %.

DaimlerChrysler shares gained 2.2% on speculation Mr Bernhard may be heading to the rival German manufacturer. Other carmakers also advanced. Renault gained 1.6%, while Peugeot added 3.7 %.


Decliners

Shares of Reed Elsevier the Anglo-Dutch media conglomerate, lost 1.9% after it said that its Harcourt Education division has been impacted by underperformance in the assessment business and a weak textbook market.

Peer Pearson shares slipped 0.3%. Infineon Technologies shares lost ground, down 2.6% in Frankfurt, after the fourth-quarter loss of the company narrowed to a below-forecast 36 million euros, from 100 million euros in the year-ago period.

Oil and gold

Light sweet crude oil for December delivery dropped 2 cents to $58.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME. Gold opened Thursday at a bid price of $623.20 a troy ounce, up from $620.00 late Wednesday.

Currencies

The euro on Thursday slipped slightly against the dollar after U.S. Federal Reserve Bank minutes showed that it remained committed to curbing inflation by hiking interest rates. The euro bought $1.2806 in late morning European trading, compared with $1.2823 in New York late Wednesday. The British pound slipped to $1.8875 from $1.8892. The dollar was steady at 118.05 Japanese yen, the same level it was late Wednesday.