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Wall St edges up in quiet day; Disney down late
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, February 6, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open for equities on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising 0.2 to 0.3 percent.
Walt Disney Co's quarterly revenue fell short of Wall Street's expectations after the movie studio put in a poor showing, but profit grew at a faster-than-expected 12 percent clip as media networks and theme parks held up in an uncertain economy.
Western Union, the world's largest payment transfer company, posted a higher fourth-quarter profit, but forecast full-year earnings below market expectations on macro-economic challenges.
Groupon reports its first results as a public company and the market will be keen to see if the largest daily deal website makes its first quarterly profit. Groupon is expected to report earnings of 3 cents per share on revenue of $475 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Visa is expected to post a profit of $1.45 per share, up from $1.23 per share in the quarter, helped by a rise in consumer spending in the holiday season.
Other companies announcing results include Sprint Nextel, Cisco Systems, News Corp, Moody's Corp and Time Warner.
The Mortgage Bankers Association releases at 1200 GMT Weekly Mortgage Market Index for the week ended February 3, versus the prior week. The mortgage market index read 753.3 and the refinancing index was 4,113.8 in the previous week.
Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock and three other directors will step down as the struggling company ploughs ahead with an internal overhaul, including discussions on dealing with its stakes in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan.
Real estate services company CBRE Group Inc's quarterly earnings, excluding charges, beat Wall Street's forecast, as stronger revenue from sales and its outsourcing business offset lower leasing revenue from the Americas.
Lower chicken wing costs and price increases helped bar and grill chain Buffalo Wild Wings Inc top Wall Street estimates and forecast strong growth in fourth-quarter same-store sales.
Oil field services company Halliburton plans to stop issuing BlackBerry smartphones to employees and switch over to Apple's iPhone, which it said was better suited to its needs, marking another setback for Research In Motion.
Illumina rejected as inadequate on Tuesday a $5.7 billion hostile takeover bid from Roche, saying it undervalues the gene sequencing company.
Life Technologies Corp, a maker of tools and genetic testing equipment used in biotechnology research, on Tuesday reported slightly higher than expected fourth-quarter profit and said it sees modest revenue growth in 2012.
European stocks rose 0.6 percent on Wednesday, breaking a two-day losing streak, thanks to a string of upbeat corporate outlooks and as investors bet that Greece will finally secure the bailout it needs to avoid a chaotic default.
Greek parties will try yet again on Wednesday to strike a reform deal in return for a new international rescue package to avoid a chaotic default, after a string of delays which have prompted some EU leaders to warn that the euro zone can live without Athens.
U.S. stocks rose slightly on Tuesday, but with the outcome of discussions on a bailout package for Greece uncertain, investors are unlikely to make big bets in coming days.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 33.07 points, or 0.26 percent, at 12,878.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.72 points, or 0.20 percent, at 1,347.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 2.09 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,904.08.
(Reporting by Blaise Robinson. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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Eurozone banks are fully capitalized right now so they are as prepared as they can be for the consequences. It’s show time.
The Troika should consider a best case scenario in which all of the Greek politicians seeking power in the impending elections immediately accept all of the Troika’s demands, what are the chances that those demands will be implemented and sustained long enough for Greece to become financially viable?
If Greece manages to quickly find the bottom of their financial crater, how many years and how many more billions or trillions of Euros before they no longer require the assistance of their northern neighbors?
If the Troika again rewards Greece’s deception and delay tactics by giving them yet another big cash win, they can expect more deception and delay… and they can expect to give away a lot more money that will never be repaid.
If the Troika is willing to sacrifice enough, they can somewhat improve Greece’s financial prospects, but by doing to they are institutionalizing a bailout relationship.
A lot of amateur Texas Hold Em players invest too much money in cards with poor prospects before the flop. If the flop doesn’t dramatically improve their situation, they should fold, but amateurs tend to compound their initial error by calling or raising subsequent rounds of cards and betting because they don’t want to abandon all the money they have in the pot.
Greece’s strategic position is better than the Troika’s. They have nothing to lose. The Troika must fold now or lose all of the money they brought to the table. In fact, this game will never end and the Troika’s strategic position can never improve until they finally fold and let the chips fall where they may.
China today is starting to do to us what Germany is doing to Greece. The hold a very large portion of our foreign debt even though we spend billions protecting ourselves from their ambitions.
China floods of markets with bootlegged products up to and including fake parts that go into our military equipment. Their toys poison our children, their drywall poisons our homes and yet we still let them sell their products everywhere.
We ARE GREECE right now today. Our debt to GDP is over 100% and climbing. If we couldn’t borrow and print money everyone on Social Security would be taking a minimun 20% cut right now.
What do you think would happen in this country if the government cut Social Security 20%, cut Medicare 50% and all civil servant wages 40%?
People complain about Greece’s workers and their cushy retirements??
How many civil servants and private sector workers are collecting pensions after 20 years? 25 years? 30 years?
How many of our cities and states are completely broke paying so called cushy pensions to police, firefighters, public works emmployees?
What about ex-Presidents, Legislators, Governors, Mayors and others that get full pensions after a few terms in office?
Germany in WWII blamed the Jews for their problems. Today the government is blaming US for their problems. The darn Union and Civil Servants with cushy pensions are to blame.
Look at Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, California and many other states.
The so called solution will be to cut benefits and raise taxes.
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