- Stocks Lurking Near New Highs Again
- Risk Trade Is Back On
- This Week's Biggest Story: The Dollar
- Corporate Issuance Continues at Torrid Pace
- The Bernanke Dollar Bounce & Gross Says Forget About Rate Hike
- Colgate Really Sparkles After Hours
- Light Volume Has Traders Complaining
- Gold Shatters Another Record
- Have Retailers Reached Their Limits?
- The Retail Mind Game
TRADER TALK RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Wal-Mart Price Pressure Hurts China Workers: Report
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Dubai Seeks Debt Delay, Stokes Default Fears
- China Overcapacity Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Investing in Good Karma – and Making a Profit
- China Unveils Carbon Target Ahead of Copenhagen
- Wal-Mart Price Pressure Hurts China Workers: Report
- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
More Videos
Trader Talk
Text Size 
Futures popped about 6 points at 8:30am ET, as preliminary second quarter GDP of 3.3 percent seems to have ended talk of a "formal" recession.
MBIA [MBI
Loading...
()
] up 17 percent pre-open, as it agreed to reinsure $184 billion of municipal bond risk from FGIC (its competitor). MBIA gets $741 million in premiums. Ambak [ABK
Loading...
()
] up 13 percent in sympathy.
Elsewhere:
1) retailers continue to report very mixed results. A few were quite good:
a) Tiffany [TIF
Loading...
()
] up 6 percent pre-open, reported earnings of $0.63, well above consensus of $0.55, and raised guidance for the full year. Foreigners continue to crowd into the flagship New York store: comp store sales were up 10 percent in the first half of the year at the flagship; outside of the New York flagship, U.S. sales were down 5 percent.
________________________________
New!
________________________________
b) Fabric shop Jo-Ann Stores [JAS
Loading...
()
] up 10 percent, had a smaller loss than expected, and gave full-year guidance above expectations. The take here is that more people are making their own clothes and doing their own decorating, and the company is the beneficiary.
Still, it seems that most retailers are continuing to either disappoint or bring down estimates for the full year:
a) Sears [SHLD
Loading...
()
] is really having problems. Earnings came in at $0.21 vs. expectations of $0.33 (last year they made $1.15). Sears U.S. comp store sales down 6.7 percent; Kmart down 5.6 percent.
b) Men's Wearhouse [MW
Loading...
()
] beat by a penny, but third quarter guidance at $0.36-$0.40 is well below consensus of $0.53.
c) Williams-Sonoma [WSM
Loading...
()
] reported earnings about in line with expectations, but guidance of $1.03-$1.15 was well below expectations of $1.31.
2) Hey, worried about falling stock prices? Do what the Pakistanis did: decree that prices cannot fall. In response to a 36 percent decline in the Karachi Stock Exchange this year, the board of directors of that Exchange announced that shares would not be allowed to trade below their closing level as of Wednesday.
Questions? Comments?
POPULAR TRADER TALK POSTS
- Stocks Lurking Near New Highs Again
- Risk Trade Is Back On
- This Week's Biggest Story: The Dollar
- Corporate Issuance Continues at Torrid Pace
- The Bernanke Dollar Bounce & Gross Says Forget About Rate Hike
- Colgate Really Sparkles After Hours
- Light Volume Has Traders Complaining
- Gold Shatters Another Record
- Have Retailers Reached Their Limits?
- The Retail Mind Game
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes