Stocks News

The Euro lost its earlier gains from a five-day upward trend against the dollar and German 10-year bonds rose while the majority of European stocks fell ahead of tomorrow’s EU summit. Industrial metals turned out to be the leaders in growth among trading instruments. The 17-nation unified currency fell 0.2% to $1.3905 as of 8:11AM in London. Yields on 10-year German bonds dropped 2 basis points to 2.10%. Approximately two stocks fell for each stock that rose on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index; the index as a whole lost 0.2%. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2%, while copper rose 1.1%, continuing its biggest two-week growth trend since 2009. Rice rose to its highest level in over a month. DT Trading analysts think that the world-wide growth in demand for products from Asian auto manufacturers is the main driving factor behind the growth in commodities prices, in spite of the market’s overall incredulity toward equity instruments and...

US stocks rose during trading in New York yesterday, forming a peak in the best eight-day growth for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since 2009 amid expectations that the economy will continue to recover. However, DT Trading analysts observed that such growth still didn’t prevent speculation arising as a result of the antitrust suit the US Justice Department brought against AT&T Inc (T). Shares of the Ford Motor Co (F) and Alcoa Inc went up 2.3% each since the companies most tied to the real economy experienced growth. Joy Global Inc (JOYG) added 1.3% growth after the mining equipment producer published its income forecast which exceeds analysts’ expectations. Shares of AT&T fell 3.9%, limiting the growth of the Broad Market Index. This occurred after the US government filed a suit to prevent the company’s planned purchase of competitor T-Mobile USA Inc. The government said that the purchase would hinder competition on the wireless communications market. DT Trading analysts noted that...

Asian stocks fell today for the forth day as sentiment continues to deteriorate due to EU's credit woes and US's growth worries since the economy might face a downgrade if officials fail to come up with an agreement to increase their debt ceiling. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell by 0.2% to 134.77 at 14:30 in Tokyo. Nikkei 225 Nikkei 225 fell today by 0.85% or 84.75 points closing at 9889.72. From 225 shares, 55 advanced, 154 declined and 16 unchanged. Sectors leading the decline were the industrials that lost 27.99 points and consumer goods that lost 23.58 points. Lagging shares today were Fast Retailing Co Ltd which fell by 2.08% closing at 13160 yen, second was Fanuc Corp which fell by 1.42% closing at 13920 yen. And Canon Inc Corp which fell by 2.77% closing at 3680 yen. Among the shares that advanced Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd topped the list by rising 1.39% closing at 2264 yen, followed by Sumitomo Metal...

We upgrade our recommendation for Brightpoint Inc. (CELL) to Outperform based on our view that galloping demand for high-end smartphones and tablets throughout the world will drive the company's valuation level higher in the near future. We believe the negative consequences of the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA are already reflected in the current valuation as it has plummeted nearly 39% in the last four months after this news surfaced. In the previous two quarters, Brightpoint managed record-high mobile devices. Most importantly, the majority of these wireless handsets were managed through the company's high-margin Logistic Services. Management reaffirmed a rosy picture for the rest of 2011. We believe the business fundamentals of Brightpoint remain intriguing. Newly won distribution agreements coupled with effective cost control strategies will pave the way for the company's future earnings growth. Our price target of $9.75, is based on 11.9x our fiscal 2011 earnings estimate, approaching the S&P 500 average.

AIM quoted mining company Highland Gold Mining (LON:HGM) has announced positive results from its ongoing exploration programme at Unkurtash in Kyrgyzstan. Highland – whose largest shareholders include industry giant Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) and an investment vehicle controlled by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich – said the latest results underlined its vision for developing a large open-pit mineable gold resource at Unkurtash. Highland has earmarked US$20 million of an overall US$30 million 2011 exploration budget to “substantially increase” the initial 42.9 tonnes (1.38 million oz) of gold reserves (C1+C2 category) at Unkurtash, which were recently approved by regulatory authorities. The project includes three distinct prospects: the Unkurtash, Sarytube and Karatube, which lie on Highland’s exploration licenses. At the Unkurtash prospect the new drilling results corroborate the recently established reserve estimate, which was based on results from the 2009 drilling campaign. The current results are expected to significantly improve key parameters of the resource model and respective resource categories. Deep drilling from the surface...

Stocks   Global equities were lower on Monday as traders are worried about the financial conditions of European banks. Stress tests last week revealed that many banks may need to raise additional capital due to falling sovereign debt bond prices. Debt worries were also headlining losses in the US, traders continue to worry about the lack of political agreement for raising the US’s debt ceiling. As such, financial stocks were the big losers today. Bank of America was lower by 2.8% while Deutsche Bank fell over 3.2%. Overall, the S&P 500 was 0.8% lower while the Dow lost 0.76%, while in Europe the CAC 40 was slightly more than 2.0% lower with the FTSE and DAX both losing 1.55%. Looking ahead, tech stocks will be in the spotlight tomorrow as bellwethers IBM and CSCO both released earnings after the close. Commodities With the exception of precious metals commodities were lower across the board. Agricultural and Soft commodities were especially hit hard as cotton fell 2.5%,...

The euro recovered some of its recent losses on Wednesday, in spite of Ireland being downgraded to junk by Moody's. At the moment, the euro added 0.82% to its value against the U.S. dollar to trade around $1.4091. At the same time, the euro surged against the Japanese yen as well. Currently, the euro is trading around ¥111.65, up 0.84%. The big question is where do traders find optimism about the troubled European currency? The focus of investors quickly shifted from Italy to Ireland on Wednesday, as Moody's downgraded Ireland to junk. In fact, it seems incredible how investors can follow all the debt problems in the Eurozone. A week ago it was all about Greece, yesterday it was Italy, today it is Ireland. Every day a new country it seems. Ireland, only a shadow of once mighty Celtic Tiger, has been the second Eurozone member to ask for a bailout, right after Greece. Ireland's bond spread over Germany has been growing...

Under Armour, Inc. (UA) has posted huge gains in the last year, recently hitting a new all-time high on a 21% earnings surprise. That and bullish estimates have this Zacks #1 Rank stock running with momentum. Company Description Under Armour, Inc. develops and sells a line of performance athletic apparel and footwear for men, woman and children primarily in the United States and Canada. The company was founded in 1996 and has a market cap of $4.03 billion. Under Armour has been a strong performer in 2011, recently hitting a new high after reporting solid Q1 results in late April that included a 21% earnings surprise. First-Quarter Results Revenue for the period was up 36% from last year to $313 million. Earnings also looked good, coming in at 23 cents, 21% ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, where the company has an average earnings surprise of 47% over the last four quarters. The company saw big gains from its direct-to-consumer channel, where sales were up 53%...

We are downgrading our recommendation on Federated Investors, Inc. (FII) to Underperform from Neutral based on expected downward pressure on assets under management (AUM), flows and margins. Regulatory backdrop, waning equity markets and sluggish global economic growth are expected to keep earnings under pressure. Federated's lowered AUM has resulted in a negative organic growth in the core business as investors are transferring cash from money market funds to higher yielding bank deposits or investments across the fixed income universe and equities. A significant reduction in money market managed assets due to changes in financial markets, including increases in interest rates over a short period of time, considerable deterioration in investor confidence, prolonged periods of historically low short-term interest rates and resulting fee waivers, could have a material adverse effect on Federated's results of operations. Federated shares currently trade at 14.7x our 2011 earnings estimate, a 7.5% discount to the industry average. Our six-month target price of $22.00 equates to about 13.5x our...

A European court ruled Tuesday that internet auction website eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) may be liable for trademark infringement committed by its users. eBay and French cosmetics manufacturer L'Oreal have been locked in legal proceedings for years. The cosmetics company previously sought $4.8 million in damages in 2009, accusing eBay of allowing counterfeit goods to be traded on its site. This year's ruling may translate to further legal action by L'Oreal, especially if eBay is determined to have an 'active role' in the criminal act. "When the operator has played an 'active role'..., it cannot rely on the exemption from liability which EU law confers, under certain conditions, on online service providers such as operators of Internet marketplaces," the court said in a statement. According to a Reuters report, "The court found that under EU law, member states had to ensure that national courts could order market operators to take measures that help to end trade mark infringements by users of a marketplace such as...