Apple, Ford Lead Market to Higher Opening

Elena
26 Apr, 2007
New York City

U.S. stock futures rallied on Thursday, leading the market to another session of solid gains wuith the halp of Apple and Ford. Apple surged 8% after it reported an 88% profit rise in Q1, helped by record iPod sales and Mac computers. Ford jumped 7% in the pre-open after the car maker posted a much smaller adjusted loss than analysts anticipated. Upbeat quarterly results released by 3M and Exxon Mobil also contributed to the positive market mood.

[R]9:00AM U.S. stock futures pointed higher on strong earnings from Apple, 3M, Exxon Mobil.[/R]
U.S. stock futures rallied on Thursday, leading the market to another session of solid gains on the back of strong quarterly profit at Apple and narrower-than-expected loss at Ford. Upbeat quarterly results released by 3M and Exxon Mobil also contributed to the positive mood. On the economic news front, U.S. weekly jobless claims fell by 20,000 to 321,000 during the week ending April 21

Among pre-market highlights, Apple ((APPL)) surged 8% after it reported an 88% profit rise in Q1, helped by record iPod sales as well as the company's line of Mac computers. Blue-chip stocks were supported by 7% increase in the shares of Ford ((F)) as the automaker posted a narrower-than-anticipated Q1 loss, helped by stronger performance at its international units and higher revenue. Ford reported a net loss of $282 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.4 billion, or 76 cents a share a year earlier, above estimates of 60 cents loss.

Dow member Exxon Mobil ((XOM)) reported higher-than-expected Q1 earnings, but revenue came in below year-ago levels. The stock edged up 0.8% ahead of the open. Xilinx ((XLNX)) rallied 5.3% in pre-open trading after the chip maker reported better-than-forecast Q4 results. Microsoft ((MSFT)) added 0.7% ahead of earnings release after the closing bell. S&P 500 futures rose 3.20 points to 1,504.00 and Nasdaq 100 futures improved by 9.00 points to 1,903.00. Dow industrial futures hiked up 34 points to 13,154.


[R]8:15AM 3M reported 58% earnings increase in Q1.[/R]
3M ((MMM)) reported 58% Q1 earnings increase. The company earned record $1.4 billion or $1.85 per share, up from 899 million, or $1.17 per share in the first quarter of 2006. First quarter 2007 net income included a net profit of $422 million, or 57 cents per share, due to a gain on the sale of the branded pharmaceuticals business in Europe. Sales increased 6.7% to $1.8 billion. Revenue climbed 6.1% to $5.9 billion.

Halliburton ((HAL)), oilfield services conglomerate, announced 13% profit rise in Q1, boosted largely by increased business in the Middle East which helped offset lower U.S. prices. The company reported net income of $552 million, or 54 cents a share, compared to $488 million, or 46 cents a share a year ago. Revenue rose 17% to $3.4 billion from $2.9 billion a year ago. The stock rose 2.3% in pre-market trading.


[R]8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex finishes marginally higher on April derivatives expiry.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 11.11 points, or 0.08%, higher at 14,228.88.

The Sensex traded within a range of 256.54 points today. The market-breadth was weak as there were almost three decliners for every two gainers. As 1,049 stocks advanced, 1,482 declined and only 79 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 15 advanced, while the other 15 declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,465 crore, lower than Rs 5,200.34 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 11,830.93 crore, higher than Rs 11,078.22 crore on Wednesday.

Economic news

The rupee hit a 9-year high against the dollar on Thursday, its fourth in a row, and traders anticipated further gains despite the possibility that RBI might intervene to limit its momentum. In early trading, the rupee was at 40.74 per dollar, advancing from close of 40.90 on Wednesday.

Bandwidth costs and internet access charges might be significantly reduced soon with BSNL and MTNL planning to host web servers within the country by the middle of this year. Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran today announced that these state companies would set up web servers, which will enable the internet traffic to be diverted within India instead of being routed out of the country.

The wholesale price inflation rate in India is forecast at 6.09% for the 12 months to 14 April 2007, unchanged from a week earlier. The data will be released around noon on Friday.

Trading highlights

Reliance Industries was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 307 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate and Orbit Corp.

Advancers

Bajaj Auto and Grasim rallied over 2% each to Rs 2,491 and Rs 2,495, respectively. Grasim had risen 3.5% in early trade to Rs 2,529, supported by strong fourth-quarter results in fiscal 2007, which the company unveiled after trading hours on Wednesday. Grasim reported 80.5% growth in net profit and net sales surging 36.2%.

Some IT large-caps neglected the surge of the rupee, which generally has a negative impact on them.. Wipro gained 1.3% to Rs 563 and TCS rose 1.5% to Rs 1,240. Refinery stocks also advanced. HPCL rose 3.6% to Rs 271.85, Indian Oil Corporation gained 4.3% to Rs 431 and BPCL advanced 2.9% to Rs 338.10. Hindustan Lever and TCS surged over 1.5% each to Rs 215 and Rs 1,240, respectively.

Decliners

Tata Steel led the decliners, dipping nearly 2% to Rs 560. Satyam declined 1.3 to Rs 460, while ONGC also lost 1.3% to Rs 960 on profit-taking. ICICI Bank shed 0.5% to Rs 957 as 3.4 lakh shares were traded on BSE.

Index heavy Reliance Industries dropped 0.2% to Rs 1,599. Reliance had gained 1.5% in early trade, to a record high of Rs 1,624.80. Reliance unveils fourth-quarter results today. Analysts expect between 2.8% to 9.9% growth in net profit in, between Rs 2571.30 crore and Rs 2749.50 crore, compared to Rs 2,502 crore a year earlier.


[R]6:30AM European markets rise Thursday on strong earnings reports[/R]
European markets were higher on Thursday. The German DAX Xetra 30 index rose over the 7,400 level, up 0.8% at 7,401.89, and the French CAC-40 index was up 0.4% at 5,971.88, while the U.K. FTSE 100 index gained 0.6% at 6,498.10. National benchmarks rose in all of the 17 western European markets that were open.

Advancers

ABB led the advancers, up 5.8% in Switzerland after the Swiss-Swedish engineering firm, announced its first-quarter profit more than doubled to a stronger-than-forecast $537 million from $204 million, with revenue up 21% to $6.21 billion and orders up 26% to $8.64 billion.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer rose 3.7% after the company reported an above-forecast increase in first-quarter net profit to 2.8 billion euros, from 600 million euros a year ago.

France Telecom gained 2.9% after it reported that its first-quarter sales rose 1.8% to 12.8 billion euros. France Telecom said its gross operating margin increased to 36.3% from 36.2% on cost controls and confirmed its objectives for 2007.

German chemicals company BASF added 1.8% after its first-quarter profit climbed a better-than-forecast 9% to 1.04 billion euros, with sales up 16% to 14.63 billion euros.

German industrial company Siemens rose 1% after early losses. The company unveiled new financial targets, targeting a return on capital employed between 14% and 16% by 2010, up from the 10% achieved in fiscal 2006.

Decliners

Ericsson declined 0.4% after it announced that its first-quarter net income rose 27%, just below analyst forecasts. UBS downgraded the stock to neutral.

Electrolux sank 5.9%. The second-largest household appliances maker in the world said North American sales declined and raw-materials costs will erode full-year profit.

Oil and precious metals

Gold and silver were little changed after recovering from earlier losses on speculation the dollar may fall to a record low against the euro. Gold for immediate delivery fell $2.20, or 0.3%, to $684.05 an ounce. Silver for immediate delivery fell 3 cents, or 0.3%, to $13.77 an ounce.

Crude oil fell after Iran said it was making progress in talks with the European Union on Iranian nuclear research, while some analysts predicted supplies of crude could meet demand for gasoline during the coming summer. Crude oil for June delivery fell 33 cents, or 0.5%, to $65.51 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and stood at $65.61 in morning trading in London. Brent crude for June settlement fell 33 cents, or 0.5%, to $68.24 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Currencies

The dollar rose against other major currencies in morning European trading Thursday. The euro traded at $1.3614, down from $1.3636 late Wednesday in New York. The British pound traded at $2.0002, down from $2.0012. The dollar fetched 119.11 Japanese yen, up from 118.71.