Stock Markets to Open Flat

Elena
23 Jan, 2007
New York City

U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat market opening Tuesday, with a downbeat outlook from Alcatel-Lucent further weighing on the tech sector. Shares in the company dropped 11% in pre-open after it warned that on an adjusted basis, it wouldn''t make any operating profit at all in Q4. On a positive note, chip maker TI rose 3.4% on stronger-than-expected profit and an upgrade at Merrill Lynch. S&P 500 futures fell 1.40 points, Nasdaq 100 futures slid 3.75, and Dow dropped 9 points.

[R]9:00AM Market futures were flat. Alcatel-Lucent weighed on the tech sector.[/R]
U.S. stock market futures were sitting near the unchanged mark, poised for a flat market opening on Tuesday, with a downbeat outlook from Alcatel-Lucent further weighing on the tech sector. Since the beginning of this earnings season, a number of major companies like Apple Inc. ((AAPL)), Intel Corp. ((INTC)) and International Business Machines Corp. ((IBM)) have released disappointing outlooks or results.

Shares in Alcatel-Lucent ((ALU)) dropped 11% in pre-open trading after the company warned that on an adjusted basis, it wouldn''t make any operating profit at all in Q4. The company blamed short-term uncertainty from customers due to its merger, a shift in spending from some large North American customers and heightened competition in the global wireless market.

Cell phone chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. ((TXN)) rose 3.4% in pre-open, following an upgrade of its stock at Merrill Lynch. The company posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit on stronger demand for its products. TI also said it would cut about 500 jobs. More tech companies are expected to report today, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc. ((AMD)), Sun Microsystems Inc. ((SUNW)) and Yahoo Inc. ((YHOO)).

Dow component DuPont ((DD)) fell 1.9% in pre-open trading after the chemicals giant reported higher Q4 earnings in-line with analyst forecasts. Positive results at United Technologies ((UTX)) and Johnson & Johnson ((JNJ)) provided some help, with both companies reporting earnings that improved over last year, exceeding expectations. Shares in United Technologies rose 1.4%. Standard & Poor''s 500 futures were down 1.90 points, but were even with fair value. Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 22 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 3.75 points.


[R]8:00AM Texas Instruments reported 2% profit growth in Q4.[/R]
Texas Instruments Inc. ((TXN)), the world''s largest maker of chips for mobile phones, said Q4 earnings advanced 2% from a year earlier, due to stronger demand for the company''s semiconductor and calculator products. The chip maker earned $668 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with $655 million, or 40 cents per share last year. Revenue rose by 4% to $3.46 billion from $3.32 billion in the same period a year earlier. The quarterly results exceeded analyst estimates for earnings of 38 cents a share on revenue of $3.43 billion. Excluding a 5-cent-per-share tax benefit from a federal research and development bill passed into law late last year, quarterly earnings would have come in at 40 cents per share.

For all of 2006, the company earned $4.34 billion, or $2.78 per share, on revenue of $14.25 billion, up from earnings of $2.32 billion, or $1.39 per share, on sales of $13.39 billion in 2005. TI released lower-than-expected Q1 earnings forecast. The company sees Q1 earnings in the range from 28 cents to 34 cents per share on revenue of $3.01 billion to $3.28 billion, just below analysts'' forecast of 35 cents a share. TI also said it would eliminate 500 jobs over the coming year by closing the Dallas chip plant as part of a cost-reducing plan. Before the financial results were released, the TI shares rose 20 cents to close at $28.59 on the NYSE. In after-hours trading they gained 81 cents, or 2.8%.


[R]7:30 AM Asian markets finish mixed Tuesday with Japan down and HK flat.[/R]
Asian markets closed mixed on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 Index in Japan ended 0.09% lower at 17,408.57. Among the decliners were Advantest, which fell 0.81% and TDK, which shed 0.91%. Mitsubishi Estate slipped 0.88% and Nomura Holdings closed down 0.63%.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index edged 0.01% lower to 20,769.70. Real estate companies led the decline. Henderson Land Development fell 3.5% and Sun Hung Kai Properties dropped 2%. China Mobile, the second biggest large-cap by market capitalization, helped offset losses by rising 2.5%. Shanghai benchmark index advanced 0.5% to 2,949.14. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank soared 10%, the daily limit, China Minsheng Banking surged 10% and Hua Xia Bank also rose 10%.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, closed down 0.02% at 1,363.09. LG Electronics settled down 0.9% after jumping nearly 2% during the session, hurt by worse-than-expected Q4 earnings. Oil refiner SK Corp sank 3.4% after the company reported a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter operating profit.


[R]6:30 AM European shares advanced on strong banks, miners and oil stocks.[/R]
European markets were higher Tuesday. In early trade, the FTSE 100 in London added 0.2% to 6,229.7, Frankfurt Xetra Dax was flat at 6,690.61, and the CAC 40 in Paris was fractionally higher at 5,583.53.

Advancers

Swatch, the biggest watchmaker in the world, continued the rally, up 1.7% after Credit Suisse reiterated its outperform rating and raised its price target. Oil groups made gains as crude prices held near the $53-a-barrel level. British BP added 0.6%, while Spanish Cepsa gained 0.7%.

Credit Suisse, the Swiss investment bank, gained 1% after it said on Monday it was to initiate a $6.4 billion share buyback program and ruled out any major acquisitions. Austrian banks benefited from the sentiment. Raiffeisen, upgraded by both Morgan Stanley and Fox-Pitt, Kelton on Monday, gained a further 1.2%. Erste Bank gained 1.2% after an upgrade from Czech brokerage Wood & Company.

SAP gained 1.7% after Morgan Stanley lifted its rating from equal weight to overweight and lifted its price target. L’Oreal climbed 1.6% after JPMorgan raised its recommendation from neutral to overweight.

Decliners

Alcatel-Lucent plunged 9.9% after warning of a decline in Q4 earnings. Adjusted proforma sales for Q4 of 2006 stood at around 4.42 billion euros, compared with 5.25 billion euros last year.

Sugar company Tate & Lyle shares declined 15.1% in London after it announced that a lower-than-expected contribution from its sucralose product, Splenda, means that its fiscal-year profit is likely to be lower than market expectations.

Luxury goods retailer Richemont shed 3% after recent gains. Van der Moolen dropped 0.7% after it announced that it will immediately reduce around 30% of its U.S. work force as the NYSE completes its move to its hybrid trading system.

Oil and gold

Crude oil rose on higher demand for heating oil in the U.S. and Europe amid colder weather. Crude oil for March delivery rose as much as 73 cents, or 1.4%, to $53.31 a barrel, in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March gained as much as 70 cents, or 1.3%, to $53.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Gold traded in London at $637.50 per troy ounce, down from $638.70 late Monday. In Zurich, gold traded at $635.30, down from $637.10.

Currencies

The dollar fell against other major currencies in European trading Tuesday. The euro traded at $1.3012, up from $1.2954 late Monday. The British pound rose to $1.9858, up from $1.9764. The dollar bought 121.40 Japanese yen, down from 121.61.