For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL - February 3, 2012 - Zacks.com announces the list of
stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity
Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting
stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the
blog include
Cummins
(
CMI
),
Kellogg
(
K
),
Merck
(
MRK
),
Dow Chemical
(
DOW
) and
International Paper
(
IP
).
Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the
free Profit from the Pros newsletter:
http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513
Here are highlights from Thursday's Analyst
Blog:
Mixed Earnings, Steady Jobless Claims
Investors will be weighing favorable headlines out of Europe
following successful bond auctions in Spain and Italy, against a
mixed earnings picture on the home front as a number of major
companies came out with underwhelming results. And in the run-up to
tomorrow's January non-farm payroll report, we got a
better-than-expected Initial Jobless Claims reading, highlighting
the steadily improving labor market trend.
Initial Jobless Claims dropped a better-than-expected 12K last week
to 367K. The four-week average, which smooths out the week-to-week
fluctuation, dropped by 2K to 375.8K, maintaining its downtrend of
recent weeks. This key data series witnessed some sharp volatility
in recent weeks, but appears to be back on its downtrend. The
favorable jobless claims reading today is welcome, but everybody's
focus is on Friday's government jobs report, which is expected to
show gains of about 130K in January.
This morning's earnings reports present a mixed picture, with
numerous negative surprises from major companies offsetting the
strong reports. On the positive side,
Cummins
(
CMI
) handily beat earnings and revenue expectations and reaffirmed
guidance. Cereal maker
Kellogg
(
K
) also came ahead of EPS and revenue expectations. Drug maker
Merck
(
MRK
) beat EPS expectations, but came short on the revenue side.
We also have weaker-than-expected results from
Dow Chemical
(
DOW
), with the nation's largest chemicals company citing inventory
de-stocking and weakness offsetting continued strength in emerging
markets and a rebound in the U.S.
International Paper
(
IP
) also missed EPS and revenue expectations on weakness in its
printing paper unit.
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.
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CUMMINS INC (
CMI
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DOW CHEMICAL (
DOW
): Free Stock Analysis Report
INTL PAPER (
IP
): Free Stock Analysis Report
KELLOGG CO (
K
): Free Stock Analysis Report
MERCK & CO INC (
MRK
): Free Stock Analysis Report
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