Macy's (NYSE: M), which was forecast to report a loss of a penny a share in the first quarter, said the difficult retail environment hurt sales and it incurred costs from a restructuring. The loss came to $59 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a profit of $36 million, or 8 cents a share, a year earlier. (As the numbers are quite fresh, it's possible they include one-time item not yet sorted out and not comparable to analyst expectations.)
John Deere (NYSE: DE) said its second-quarter profit rose 22%. Deere experienced increased demand for its farm equipment, as crop prices kept rising, posting an 18% increase in sales. Profit for the quarter jumped to $763.5 million, or $1.74 per share, a penny below analyst estimates. From premarket early action, it seems shares of DE might start much lower.
Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) also reported this morning, saying its first quarter loss widened to $151 million as the U.S. housing market worsened. Somehow, though, the results were not as poor as expected and FRE's loss of 66 cents a share beat estimates of a 92 cents a share loss. FRE's shares are up over 6% in premarket trading.
Still on earnings, last night Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) reported results. Shares of WFMI are plunging nearly 9% in premarket trading as the organic grocery chain reported a worse-than-forecast 13% profit fall.
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) shares are also declining over 2.8% in premarket trading after the suitor of Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) reported a widening quarterly loss and a disappointing outlook.
"Although Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) recently posted an 18% drop in its first-quarter earnings, I remain a long-term bull on the shares," notes Nilus Mattive in the income and growth oriented Dividend Superstars.
"Results were hurt by tougher generic competition for the company's blood-pressure drug Norvasc and allergy treatment Zyrtec. Pfizer pulled in $0.41 a share in the quarter, but would have earned $0.61 excluding costs associated with two acquisitions.
"A lot of investors are treating the poor earnings as a death knell for the company, especially since Lipitor - PFE's biggest product - will also lose patent protection in 2010. However, I've watched countless drug stocks go through these cycles before, and I continue to believe it's smarter to buy when things look the worst.
"This is still the world's largest drug company ... it still delivers big, fat dividend checks ... and it is making strong moves to reorganize its operations and focus on new drug development. For all those reasons, I remain positive on the shares."
Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.
The third-largest U.S. drugmaker has cut 8,100 jobs globally since the beginning of its restructuring plan, Plan to Win, in late 2005. But as Cordaptive, which was supposed to offset some of the losses Merck is expecting from generics coming into the market, fell through, the cost cutting side of the plan took on an added urgency.
Cordaptive and generics aren't Merck's only problem. The FDA also recently suggested its other cholesterol pills, Zetia and Vytorin, aren't any better than an older, cheaper treatment. Merck said it expects to lose as much as 61% of sales for these drugs.
So none of this comes as no surprise really; not in light of Merck's problems, and not in light of the industry's. Other drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) have announced job cuts as they face more competition from generic substitutions. Merck is also planning some plant closures.
Merck's shares lost nearly 33% of their value year-to-date, as it was partly down with the overall market and partly due to the string of bad news that seemed to have hit most hard recently. It is trading not far from its 52-week low.
While Merck is saying it will still fight the FDA decision on Cordaptive and try to convince doctors about Vytorin, the actions it is taking seem reactive, not proactive. Without much to offer in its arsenal of upcoming possibilities, Merck, at least for now, seems to have lost the potential for meaningful growth.
With the current challenging market conditions probably many of us are wondering which are those reliable stocks that could offer us a big profit in the next coming years. In the light of those questions, Gene Marcial's new book, 7 Commandments of Stock Investing, reveals his perspective over seven stocks that are considered to be worth buying and holding for the next seven years (check out BusinessWeek's slideshow of his seven picks).
Taking advantage of the experience he gained over the past 30 years, BusinessWeek's Gene Marcial shares his opinions related to investors' strategy to use market meltdowns for their own benefit, being able to turn the stock market panic into success.
Regulators Zero in on Credit Card Reform Federal regulators are pushing ahead to stop abuses by credit card issuers at a time when the $2 trillion industry has come under increasing scrutiny. Regulators zero in on credit card reform - CNNmoney
50 Most Innovative Companies The companies that make up BusinessWeek's annual ranking nurture cultures that value creative people in good times and bad. The top company by industry include Apple, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Disney, Toyota, GE, Marriott, Wal-Mart and BP. The World's Most Innovative Companies
Are There Too Many Women Doctors? As an MD shortage looms, female physicians and their flexible hours are taking some of the blame. Are There Too Many Women Doctors?
Today's trading session was merely a mixed day after a huge day, with the bulls coming out slightly on top. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve said regional manufacturing activity has weakened further and its manufacturing activity fell to -24.9 from an already negative -17.4 in March. As we all hope employment will hang tough in a weak spending climate, jobless claims rose by 17,000 more from the prior week to a level of 372,000 this week. Here are the unofficial closing levels for US index levels:
Shares of drug maker Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) have been tumbling in early trading after reporting this morning a plunge of 18% in its first-quarter profit. The company's earnings numbers have been dragged down by lower sales of blood-pressure drug Norvasc and the allergy drug Zyrtec.
The company said its quarterly profit dropped to $2.78 billion, or 41 cents per share on strong generic competition. These numbers are down from $3.39 billion, or 48 cents per share reported in the same period a year ago. Excluding items, Pfizer's earnings would have come in at 61 cents per share, missing analysts' predictions for a profit of 66 cents per share in the quarter.
Pfizer's quarterly revenue also slipped 5% to $11.85 billion.The company attributed the revenue decline to its loss of U.S. exclusivity for blood pressure drug Norvasc. However, the drop in revenue could have been even worse if the drug maker hadn't benefited from the weak dollar, Pfizer stated. Analysts expected the company to show sales of $12.06 billion in the first quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.
Futures eased slightly this morning as the market sought to catch its breath after sprinting higher Wednesday. All indices had strong gains after better-than-expected first-quarter earnings reports from JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola Co., and Intel Corp. The Dow industrials finished up 257 points, or 2.08%, the S&P 500 rose 30 points or 2.27% and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 64 points or 2.8%.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) reported very strong Q1 figures after the close Wednesday. The company had income from continuing operations of $2.3 billion, or $1.65 a share, up from $1.8 billion, or $1.21 a share, a year ago. IBM was aided by the weakness of the U.S. dollar, with some 65% of revenue coming from overseas. eBay also had a good quarter, with profit climbing 22%.
However, there was a disappointing earnings report from Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) this morning. The company lost $1.96 billion, or $2.19 a share, compared with net income of $2.16 billion, or $2.26 a share, a year ago, after billions of dollars of writedowns related to the subprime crisis. Merrill plans to cut about 4,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce. Nokia (NYSE: NOK)'s quarterly income rose 25% to 1.22 billion euros, up from 979 million euros a year earlier, but missing analysts expectations of 1.38 billion euros, according to Bloomberg News. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) also missed analysts' estimates for the quarter, with profit falling 18%.
The U.S. dollar hit another all-time low against the euro, while oil prices hit an all-time high of more than $115 a barrel. According to the U.S. Energy Department, inventories of gasoline fell 5.5 million barrels last week. Related to the ongoing increase in oil prices, Continental Airlines reported a loss for the first quarter, while Southwest Airlines earnings declined. However, American Airlines yesterday posted a smaller-than-expected loss.
In the news today, Yahoo! moves closer to deal with Google on outsourcing search advertising, according to the Wall Street Journal.Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is expected to release earnings this afternoon.
In economic data, unemployment claims for the week ending April 5 will be released at 8:30 a.m. EST; the Philadelphia Fed report will be out at 10:00 a.m.
There are a variety of problems with conventional chemical reactions in the manufacturing process – such as high energy use, hazards, high temperatures, expensive equipment, and so on.
But there is an alternative: biocatalysts. These can operate at or near room temperature, which provides significant energy savings.
One of the top players in the space is: Codexis. And, the company has recently filed to go public.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to post smaller profits in the first quarter. Both companies are scheduled to report results on Wednesday.
Southwest is expected to essentially break even as far as earnings are concerned, which is down from the same period in 2007 when it earned four cents per share. The company has beat quarterly estimates recently. It only just beat the consensus third-quarter 2007 estimate, but beat the fourth-quarter estimate by 21.2%.
Dallas-based Southwest's low-cost, no-frills approach has made it one of the leading U.S. airlines. In the past year, the company's revenues were $9.8 billion and its net income totaled $645 million. Its EPS growth forecast for the year is -28.7%, worse than the industry average but better than that of rival JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU). The consensus recommendation of analysts remains to buy Southwest.
The stock has fallen 18.5% in the past year and trades at a P/E of 14.7. Shares closed Tuesday at $12.35.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Patterson Companies, Virgin Media and MannKind were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Patterson (NASDAQ:PDCO) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird, as the firm's checks indicate industry fundamentals have softened and it sees greater near-term risk for dental consumables than dental equipment.
Virgin Media (NASDAQ:VMED) was cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies as they believe the company's results could be under pressure given the continued competitive activity and potential weakening of the UK economy.
Piper downgraded shares of MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD) to Neutral from Buy and lowered their target to $1.50 after Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) discontinued inhaled insulin Exubera due to an increase in lung cancer cases.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Lehman cut Cheniere Energy (LNG) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
Pantry (PTRY) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Friedman Billings.
JP Morgan lowered Watsco (WSO) to Neutral from Overweight.
Stock futures were mixed in early morning, indicating many on Wall Street would rather wait until Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's testimony before Congress today.
On Tuesday, April Fool's Day, stocks surged following news banks were raising capital and as many believed the credit crisis has reached a crescendo and the worst is over. With that, the Dow industrials nearly 400 points, or 3.2%, the Nasdaq composite climbed 83 points, 3.7% and the S&P 500 surged 47 points, or 3.6%.
Today, though things seem quieter ahead of Bernanke's testimony before a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Bernanke will also discuss and be questioned on the Fed's role in the fire-sale of Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) to JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) last month and its role as guarantor.
On the economic docket, at 8:15 a.m., the ADP employment report for March will likely show another decline in private sector jobs. This is seen as a precursor to the government jobs report due Friday, but there have been variations in the past. February factory orders will be released at 10 a.m. and although economists predict a decline, the magnitude forecast is much less than February.
Once thought to be extremely safe, action rate securities have proved difficult to sell in this credit crisis. Tech companies are big holders of them and are taking charges left and right, including MetroPCS Communications Inc (NYSE: PCS), Palm Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) and Earthlink Inc (NASDAQ: ELNK), according to the Wall Street Journal.
NYSE Euronext Inc (NYSE: NYX) will look to increase its stakes in India's National Stock Exchange and the country's Multi Commodity Exchange, the Business Standard reported, once foreign ownership rules are eased. NYSE Euronext also intends to partner with the two Indian exchanges in order to help them develop their business.
WEB SITES:
Business Week reported that Brian Marckx of Zacks Investment Research said Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) may be an attractive takeover candidate for a larger pharma such as Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) or France's Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE: SNY), both of which have been partners with Bristol on some of its products.
Before the bell: Futures lower ahead of CPI
With the current challenging market conditions probably many of us are wondering which are those reliable stocks that could offer us a big profit in the next coming years. In the light of those questions, Gene Marcial's new book, 7 Commandments of Stock Investing, reveals his perspective over seven stocks that are considered to be worth buying and holding for the next seven years (check out BusinessWeek's 
Here are some highlights from this past week's 
Shares of drug maker 
There are a variety of problems with conventional chemical reactions in the manufacturing process – such as high energy use, hazards, high temperatures, expensive equipment, and so on. 
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Stock futures were mixed in early morning, indicating many on Wall Street would rather wait until Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's testimony before Congress today..gif){kind=logo}
Comfort Zone Investing: One thriving area of real estate: Apartments
Just how high will U.S. gasoline prices rise?
Nordstrom and Kohl's post smaller-than-expected Q1 profit declines
