Yesterday posted about the bad numbers of earnings but today it seems to be manifesting in the futures for sure-
Stock index futures fell on Tuesday on concerns the slow global
economy will continue to dent corporate revenues, with a trio of Dow
components appearing to confirm investor worries.
United Technologies Corp (UTX)
reported a 3.3 percent decline in third-quarter earnings and cut its
sales forecast for the year, citing weak demand from airlines and an
uncertain economy.
Fellow Dow component DuPont (DD)
reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday and
announced 1,500 job cuts as part of a cost savings program designed to
offset falling sales around the world. Its shares dropped 5.4 percent to
$47.10 in premarket trade.
3M Co (MMM)
fell 2.7 percent to $90 in premarket trade after the diversified U.S.
manufacturer reported a 6.7 percent rise in third-quarter profit, but
the company cut its profit forecast for the full year as acquisition
costs and a strengthening dollar hurt margins.
"It was ever so modest and ever so subtle but there was
a shift to the markets really starting to trade on U.S. economic and
U.S. company fundamentals and the market didn't seem to care much about
what central banks were doing or what was going on in Europe," said
Keith Bliss, senior vice-president at Cuttone & Co in New York.
"Then all of a sudden - wham - we get weaker earnings
this quarter and it refocuses everybody's attention on the global
economy."
Adding to the global economic concerns was a fall in
Spanish bond prices after Moody's downgraded five of the country's
regions including economically important but deeply indebted Catalonia.
S&P 500 futures fell 16.1 points and were well
below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into
account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the
contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures dropped 112 points, and
Nasdaq 100 futures declined 25 points.
According to Thomson Reuters data, 33 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to post earnings on Tuesday. Of the 123 S&P 500 (^GSPC)
companies that have reported earnings through Monday morning, 60.2
percent have topped analysts' expectations, shy of the 62 percent
average since 1994 and below the 67 percent average over the past four
quarters.
Earnings are expected to fall 2.4 percent in the third
quarter from a year ago. Even more disconcerting to investors, top-line
expectations have been more discouraging, with 61 percent of companies
having missed revenue expectations.
Apple Inc (AAPL)
shed 0.6 percent to $630.01 in premarket trade. The company is expected
to make its biggest product move on Tuesday since the iPad's debut two
years ago, launching a smaller, cheaper tablet into a market staked out
by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) and Google Inc (GOOG).
Whirlpool Corp (WHR)
advanced 2 percent to $88 after reporting a higher-than-expected
quarterly profit, helped by price increases and tight cost controls, and
the world's largest appliance maker raised its earnings outlook for the
year.
RadioShack Corp (RSH)
tumbled 15.5 percent to $2.02 in premarket after the consumer
electronics chain reported a much wider-than-expected quarterly loss,
hurt by weak margins in its smartphone business.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's policy committee is also set
to begin the first day of a two-day meeting on interest rate policy on
Tuesday. The Federal Open Market Committee is likely to hold off from
taking fresh steps at the meeting, opting to review the impact of the
significant action it took last month and keep a low profile in its last
gathering before the November 6 general election.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
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