Citi, BB&T Earnings Lift Banks; Carrefour Drops

123jump.com Staff
17 Apr, 2009
New York City

Banks rallied on the hopes that adjusted earnings are better than GAAP earnings and Citigroup reported its first quarterly earnings in six quarters. Gazprom, Russian gas giant raised $2.5 billion in international bond offering, first from Russia in nine months. Carrefour quarterly sales declined.

5:00PM New York, 11:00PM Frankfurt, 8:00AM Sydney[R]– Banks rallied on the hopes that adjusted earnings are better than GAAP based earnings and Citigroup reported its first quarterly earnings in six quarters. Gazprom, Russian gas giant raised $2.5 billion in international bond offering, first offering from Russia in nine months. Carrefour reported first quarterly sales decline in six years.[/R]

Global Markets

U.S. stocks traded sideways after the release of earnings from General Electric and Citigroup. Banks rallied in the U.S. and Europe after Citi reported its first quarterly profit in the last six quarters. Also positive comments from BB&T on housing markets in Florida and Georgia lifted stocks of banks. BB&T surged 11% after it said that it has adequate capital and reported adjusted earnings of 52 cents a share.

Citigroup reported net income of $1.6 billion in the first quarter 2009 on accounting adjustments related to derivative positions. The battered bank reported its first gain after five quarterly losses totaling of $37 billion and three government bailouts that included $45 billion of infusion and conversion of $25 billion of preferred shares to common shares.

General Electric ((GE)) reported first quarter earnings from continuing operations declined 35% to $2.8 billion and earnings per share plunged 40% to 26 cents. Revenues declined 9% to $38.4 billion and industrial segment revenues decreased 9% and financial segment revenues declined 20%.

The results in the current quarter do not include the impact of mark-to-market accounting which will be counted in the second quarter results.

In European trading semiconductor stocks rose after Toshiba reported smaller than estimated loss by the company. Infineon Technologies gained 11%, STMicroelectronics NV added 5.6% and ASML Holding NV increased 6%.

Carrefour SA revenues in the first quarter declined 2.8% to 22.72 billion euros, its first quarterly sales decline in six years. Accor SA, the largest hotel company in Europe reported first quarter sales decline of 9.6% to 1.62 billion euros.

Beiersdorf AG based in Hamburg, Germany first quarter earnings before interest and taxes declined 26% to 145 million euros on weak results in adhesive division. The stock fell 8.6% to 2.95 euros.

The UK benchmark index rose 1% after banks rallied on earnings from Citigroup. Barclays Plc increased 7%, Lloyds Banking Group jumped 16%, Royal Bank of Scotland added 14%, and HSBC Holdings Plc declined 0.6%.

BT Group ((BT)) surged 9.5% after Daily Mirror in London reported that businesses with “sound models” will be allowed by the UK government to adjust their pension plan deficits. No details were available. The BT Group operates the largest pension plan among any company with 340,000 members.

OAO Gazprom, Russia based largest gas company placed $2.5 billion dollar denominated bonds through Credit Suisse AG that yielded 9.25% and has a put option to redeem after three years under certain conditions.

Bank of Japan reported that economic conditions in each of nine metrics deteriorated with exports and business fixed investment leading the decline. Cabinet office reported today that the countries confidence index advanced to 28.9 in March from 26.7 the previous month.

In Australian trading, the focus was still on currencies as stocks were unchanged. The currencies of Australia and New Zealand continue to slide after weak economic report from China. The retailer Woolworths Ltd third quarter sales rose 6.5% on same store sales gain in Australia of 8.8%.

North American Markets

Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 5.90 or 0.07% to a close of 8,131.33, S&P 500 Index increased 4.30 or 0.50% to 869.60, and Nasdaq Composite Index increased 2.63 or 0.16% to close at 1,673.07.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 320 increased, 176 declined and 4 were unchanged.

SLM Corp led decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 17% followed by losses in Citigroup Inc of 9%, in Cincinnati Financial of 4.6%, in CF Industries of 4.6%, in AIG of of 4.2% and in General Motors of 4.1%.

CBS Corp led gainers in the S&P 500 index with a surge of 20% followed by gains in Huntington Bancorp of 17.5%, in Mattel Inc of 15.2%, in Tyco Electronics of 13.7%, in New York Times of 13.3% and in E*Trade Financial of 13.2%.

South American Markets Indexes

Mexico Bolsa Index increased 45.64 or 0.2% to 22,234.84. Brazil Bovespa Stock Index declined 246.50 or 0.5% to 45,778.28.

Argentina Merval Index surged 0.3%, Chile Stock Market Select index declined 0.4% and Peru Lima General Index added 1.2%. Colombia IGBC General Index decreased 0.5% and Venezuela Stock Market Index increased 0.1%.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 39.82 or 0.98% to 4,092.80, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 53.78 or 1.77% to close at 3,091.96 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 67.38 or 1.46% to close at 4,676.84. In Zurich trading SMI increased 28.68 or 0.56% to close at 5,192.63.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 152.32 or 1.74% to 8,907.58, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 18.28 or 0.12% closed to 15,601.27, CSI 300 index in China lower 36.42 or 1.36% closed to 2,650.69. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 1.00 or 0.03% closed to 3,776.70. The KL Composite index in Malaysia higher 3.89 or 0.40% closed to 965.17.

The Kospi Index in South Korea decreased 7.72 or 0.58% to close at 1,329.00. SET index in Thailand closed higher 3.83 or 0.85% to 456.80 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 9.70 or 0.60% closed to 1,634.79. The Sensex index in India increased 75.69 or 0.69% closed to 11,023.09.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil increased $0.27 to close at $50.25 a barrel for a front month contract, natural gas increased 16 cent to $3.76 per mBtu and gasoline futures increased 1.96 cents to close at 149.39 cents per gallon.

Wheat futures closed down 1.750 cents in Chicago trading and closed at $5.3475 a bushel. Sugar increased 0.31 cent in trading at 13.66 cents a pound. Soybean future closed down 9.00 cent to $10.41 a bushel.

Gold decreased $12.40 in New York trading to close at $867.40 per ounce, silver closed down $0.42 to $11.835 per ounce and copper for the front month delivery increased 1.60 cents to $2.19 per pound.

Dollar edged higher against euro to $1.3026 and edged lower against yen to 99.29.

Yields on 10-year U.S. bonds increased to 2.94% and with 30-year maturities closed up at 3.80%.