As America heads to the polls, the markets head north, with blue
chips United Technologies (
UTX
), Boeing (
BA
) and Caterpillar (
CAT
) leading the gainers.
However, although the U.S. Presidential Election has just got
underway and we may not not know the winner until the early hours
of Wednesday, some discussions have already turned to how
government - be it under Obama or Romney - will deal with the
so-called 'fiscal cliff', the more than $600 billion in tax hikes
and spending cuts that take effect in January.
On the economic front, Corelogic reported the housing market's
first month-over-month decline since February. While September home
prices dipped 0.3% vs. August 2012, home prices increased
year-over-year by 5% in September vs. September 2011, representing
the biggest increase since July 2006.
The nation's job market has been a key weight in the 2012
campaign season, and the Labor Department today said that U.S.
employers posted 100,000 less jobs in September. It suggested
hiring is likely to remain modest in the coming months.
With equities, U.S. sectors are all trading higher with
conglomerates as the lone +1% gainer. Capital goods, energy and
technology are all up more than 0.50%. In commodities, both energy
and metals are higher at midday.
Crude oil for December delivery was up $0.55 to $86.20 a barrel.
December natural gas was up $0.02 to $3.58 per 1 million BTU.
December gold futures was up $8.40 at $1,691.60 per ounce.
December silver was up $0.03 to $31.16 per ounce. December copper
was up $0.01 at $3.48 per pound.
Here's where the markets stood at mid-day:
Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) up 83.84 (+0.64%)
13,195.78
S&P 500 (^INX) up 5.85 (+0.41%) 1,423.11
Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) up 5.40 (+0.18%) 3,005.06
NYSE Composite (^NYA) up 5.40 (+0.44%) 8,276.41
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
Nikkei 225 Index down 0.36%
Hang Seng Index down 0.28%
Shanghai China Composite Index down 0.38%
FTSE 100 Index up 0.65%
DAX up 0.69%
NYSE SECTOR INDICES
NYSE Financial Sector Index (^NYK) up 23.10 (+0.47%) at
4,894.37
NYSE Energy Sector Index (^NYE) up 75.90 (+0.60%) at
12,696.49
NYSE Healthcare Sector Index (^NYP) up 9.35 (+0.12%) at
7,881.20
UPSIDE MOVERS:
(+) NVGN (+79.3%) Shares of pharmaceutical company Novogen are
up around 80%, but drifting off the day's 52-week high of $4.74.
MEI Pharma, a San Diego-based subsidiary of NVGN, says it has
raised $27.5 million.
(+) ROSG (+16.8%) Rosetta Genomics is up 17% after saying that
the New York State Department of Health has given the company final
approval for its miRview lung assay following conditional approval
issued in June. With this final approval, ROSG can continue to
offer the miRview lung assay in all 50 U.S. states, it says.
(+) JIVE (+15%) Jive Software is up 15% after late yesterday
reporting Q3 revenue of $28.9 million vs. the Capital IQ analyst
estimate of $28.79. JIVE posted a loss per share for Q3 at $0.09,
better than the Street view calling for a loss of $0.11. The
company guided Q4 revenue in the range of $30.0 million - $31.5
million, and loss per share in the range of $0.15 - $0.17. The
revenue estimate straddles the Street view, but falls short of the
current expectation of a $0.09 EPS loss.
(+) SYKE (+12.6%) Sykes is up nearly 13% after reporting Q3
revenue of $280.5 million, better than the analyst consensus of
$267 million on Capital IQ. EPS was $0.31, vs. expectations of
$0.27 per share. For Q4, the company expects revenue in the range
of $300 to $305 million and EPS of $0.28 to $0.33, vs. the Street
view of $272 million in revenue and earnings of $0.31.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS:
(-) SREV (-35.5%, hit new year lows) Servicesource International
is down 35% after the stock was downgraded to Equalweight from
Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Price target information was not
available.
(-) MKTG (-30%, hit new year lows) Responsys is down 30% after
the stock was downgraded by Credit Suisse to a Neutral rating from
an Outperform rating. Price target information was not
available.
(-) VVUS (-22.9%) VIVUS is down more than 20% after reporting Q3
revenue of $41,000, up from zero last year. Net loss was $0.40 per
share, vs. a year ago loss of $0.10 per share.
(-) MMYT (-21.5%, hit new year lows) Make My Trip is down 24%
after reporting FQ2 results. In the quarter MMYT reported adjusted
diluted EPS of $0.03 versus $0.04 in the comparable quarter.
Revenue for the recent quarter was $45.7 million compared to $43.8
million in the same quarter last year. Capital IQ analysts were
expecting EPS of $0.05. Revenue was above the $23.72 million
analyst forecast.