Moving the Market

There were a number of stocks moving in after hours, including the following.

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings: LNKD +8.3%, KONA +6.5%, BRKS +5.9%, CBB +4.6%.

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings: TRLG -22.0%, NUAN -12.8%, LF -9.2%, ASYS -7.2%, GDI -7.2%, EXPE -4.4%, EVEP -4.1%, LGF -2.4%.

Of the many companies scheduled to report earnings on Friday, some of the bigger names include:

• ALU, AB, LNT, APO, ACI, BPO, CPN, FLIR, LYB, and NYX.

The U.S. international trade deficit widened from $47.1 bln in November to $48.8 bln in December. The Briefing.com consensus expected the deficit to increase to $48.2 bln.

The expansion of the trade deficit was in-line with BEA expectations in the advance release of Q4 2011 GDP. It should not result in a substantial revision to the fourth quarter GDP estimate.

Imports increased by nearly $3.0 bln in December, from $224.6 bln in November to $227.6 bln. Exports increased from $177.5 bln in November to $178.8 bln in December, a gain of just over $1.2 bln.

The goods deficit increased $1.8 bln to $64.3 bln in December. The services surplus remained at $15.5 bln.

Export gains were almost equally split between petroleum shipments ($0.45 bln) and nonpetroleum exports ($0.50 bln).

The increase in imports came primarily from nonpetroleum demand, specifically from pharmaceuticals ($0.7 bln), other household goods ($0.6 bln),automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.5 bln), and civilian aircraft ($0.4 bln). Petroleum imports declined from $37.8 bln in November to $37.6 bln in December.

Consumer confidence slipped in the preliminary reading for the February University of Michigan Confidence Index. The index declined from 75.0 in January to 72.5 in February. The Briefing.com consensus expected confidence to fall to 74.0.

The expectations index fell from 69.1 in January to 68.0 in February while the present conditions index dropped to 79.5 from 84.2 in January.

Typically, consumer confidence follows changes in employment, oil prices, equity prices, and media reports.

With substantial improvement in the labor sector, as shown by the best claims level since early 2008, and an equity market that is up 7.4% since beginning of January, we expected consumer confidence to continue to increase in February. The fact that confidence fell, however, will have no bearing on our 2012 outlook.

Trends in consumption closely follow income gains and almost nothing else. According to the February Employment Situation Report, aggregate wages increased 0.4%. That should be enough to keep consumption growth on an upward trend even after the drop in confidence.

The tech sector is trading lower today, just ahead of losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing relative weakness in line with the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading 1.6% lower. WFR (-4.7%) is a notable laggard in the chip index. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 1.0% lower, while the NASDAQ is trading 0.9% lower and the QQQ is trading 0.8% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, TXN (-1.2%) and INTC (-0.7%) are under notable pressure.

In earnings last night, LNKD (+14.1%) posted a Q2 beat and offered inline guidance. Elsewhere, NUAN (-13.3%) posted a Q1 miss and issued inline guidance, NXPI (+0.8%) posted an inline qtr with slightly above consensus guidance and ATVI (-1.8%) reported a beat and downside guidance. This morning, ALU (+13.4%) posted a slight beat.

In news, ALBCF (-3.9%) is considering taking Hong Kong unit private, which would give YHOO (+0.4%) stake in Alibaba, according to reports.

Among notable analyst upgrades this morning, JDSU (+2.5%) was upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse and PROJ (+1.5%) was upgraded to Outperform at Wells Fargo. Also, ATVI (-1.8%) was added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman.

Among downgrades, NCR (-1.5%) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman and EA (-4.4%) and ATVI (-1.8%) were downgraded to Neutral at Macquarie.