Out with the old and in with the new. That could be today's motto for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) , which dropped precipitously yesterday on bad economic news and seems to be gaining on the opposite this morning. With less than two hours of trading under its belt, the index is up half a percent just after 11 a.m. EDT.
A helping hand
This morning's jobless claims and Challenger job cuts reports both provided some much-needed good news from the labor market. Jobless claims fell to a five-year low last week, as the number of new claims dropped to 324,000. Economists had expected an increase, but were surprised when both the weekly and four-week rolling numbers both fell. The Challenger report showed that announced layoffs were also down in April, with employers only cutting 38,121 positions in April. This is a 6% decrease from a year ago.
Coupled with yesterday's discouraging ADP report, which showed that small-business employers only hired 119,000 workers in April, the reports suggest that though the slowdown in economic recovery hasn't resulted in massive layoffs, employers are still hesitant to hire new workers.�All eyes will be on tomorrow's non-farm-payroll report, with hope for good news.
Hot Asian Companies To Watch For 2015: Material Sciences Corporation(MASC)
Material Sciences Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of material-based solutions for acoustical and coated applications in the United States and internationally. It offers acoustical material-based solutions, which include multilayer composites consisting of metals, polymers, and other coated materials used to manage noise and vibration in automotive body panel parts, brake dampers, engine parts, appliances, and computer disk drives, as well as heating, ventilating, and air conditioning products. The company also provides coated material-based solutions that comprise painted, electrogalvanized protective, decorative, and functional coatings applied to coils of metals for automotive fuel tanks, building products, gaskets, appliances, and lighting fixtures. Material Sciences Corporation primarily serves customers in the automotive, appliance, building and construction, lighting, and electronic markets. The company m arkets its products, services, and technologies through sales and marketing organization, as well as through agents and licensees. Material Sciences Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Material Sciences (NASDAQ: MASC) is projected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.16 per share.
Blackhawk Network Holdings (NASDAQ: HAWK) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.05 per share on revenue of $210.94 million.
Top 5 US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Rockwell Automation Inc.(ROK)
Rockwell Automation, Inc. provides industrial automation power, control, and information solutions. It operates in two segments, Architecture and Software, and Control Products and Solutions. The Architecture and Software segment offers control platforms that perform multiple control disciplines and monitoring of applications, including discrete, batch and continuous process, drives control, motion control, and machine safety control; and products comprising controllers, electronic operator interface devices, electronic input/output devices, communication and networking products, and industrial computers. This segment also offers software products, such as configuration and visualization software used to operate and supervise control platforms, advanced process control software, and manufacturing execution software to enhance manufacturing productivity and meet regulatory requirements; and rotary and linear motion control products, and sensors and machine safety components . The Control Products and Solutions segment provides low and medium voltage electro-mechanical and electronic motor starters, motor and circuit protection devices, AC/DC variable frequency drives, push buttons, signaling devices, termination and protection devices, relays and timers, and condition sensors; and packaged solutions, such as configured drives and motor control centers to automation and information solutions, as well as life-cycle support services. The company sells its products, solutions, and services primarily under the Rockwell Automation, Allen-Bradley, A-B, and Rockwell Software brand names to the food and beverage, transportation, oil and gas, metals, mining, home and personal care, pulp and paper, and life sciences markets through independent distributors and direct sales force in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Rockwell Automation, Inc. was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Milwaukee , Wisconsin.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marc Bastow]
Industrial automation power, control and information systems company Rockwell Automation (ROK) raised its quarterly dividend 12% to 58 cents per share, payable on Dec. 10 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 8.
ROK Dividend Yield: 2.08%
- [By John Kell]
Rockwell Automation Inc.(ROK) said its fiscal first-quarter earnings jumped 23% as operating margins widened and sales in both segments increased. Results topped estimates, pushing shares up 2.6% to $118 premarket.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
That negative sentiment “flashed as a positive indicator,” Inch and Lau say, and some stocks appear to be “‘locked and loaded’ to meaningfully exceed forecast estimates.” Those include Rockwell Automation (ROK), Eaton (ETN) and Emerson Electric (EMR).
- [By Blake Bos]
In the following video, Fool consumer-goods/industrials analyst Blake Bos breaks down Aviation Week's top aerospace and defense picks by annual revenue. His discussion includes Cubic (NYSE: CUB ) , Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK ) , Exelis (NYSE: XLS ) , Boeing (NYSE: BA ) , and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) .
Top 5 US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Exxon Mobil Corporation(XOM)
Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, and manufacture of petroleum products, as well as transportation and sale of crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. The company manufactures and markets commodity petrochemicals, including olefins, aromatics, polyethylene and polypropylene plastics, and other specialty products. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 35,691 gross and 30,494 net operated wells. The company has operations in the United States, Canada/South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. Exxon Mobil Corporation was founded in 1870 and is based in Irving, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Matt DiLallo]
With natural gas prices rising off recent record lows, it begs the question, when will drillers restart stalled drilling programs? As the nation's top natural gas producer, ExxonMobil's (NYSE: XOM ) thoughts on the subject are important to listen to. The company's plan is to let its natural gas production decline by 5% this year and only marginally grow production in the future due to the recent low prices.
Top 5 US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Clarke(t)
T.Clarke plc, a building services contractor, provides electrical and mechanical installation services and supplies associated equipment. The company offers information communications technology (ICT) services in the areas of structured cabling and connectivity, network infrastructure and security, networked energy management, data centre infrastructure, and managed and support services; facilities management services, such as preventative, reactive, and planned maintenance solutions; and green technologies services, which comprise photovoltaics, rainwater harvesting, biomass boilers, ground source heating, air source heating, wind turbines, lighting, and carbon reduction audit services. It also provides massive reading station redevelopment, cross rail, border rail link, and underground power upgrade services for the rail sector; lifecycle building services combining mechanical and electrical works with ICT for utilities and technologies sectors; lifecycle services for ho tel and residential sectors, which include electrical, ICT, and mechanical systems design, installation, commissioning, and maintenance; and mechanical and electrical contracting services for education, healthcare, government/local authority, retail and leisure, stadiums, transport, towers, media, and residential sectors. In addition, the company manufactures and prefabricates elements of an installation, as well as engineering components. T.Clarke plc was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Radovsky]
To make things a bit more interesting, last month the Financial Times reported that Verizon was working on a possible partnership with AT&T (NYSE: T ) to buy out Vodafone completely.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
www.workingadvantage.com Employees of governments and businesses large and small can often get employee discounts, on purchases as diverse as belly dancing classes and home mortgages. Better yet, their friends and family can frequently enjoy some of those discounts, too. In general, the larger the company, the more likely it offers these deals. For instance, Southwest Airlines (LUV) offers free flights to both workers and their families; friends get discounts. Many of the larger telecom companies, like Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), have discounted service plans for employees of the government and large corporations. If you work for an insurance company or a bank, you might get discounts at Macy's (M) or on Apple (AAPL) or Dell computers. So if you have a friend or family member who works for a large entity, you might want to ask them to inquire with their human resources department about what employee discounts they -- and you -- might be entitled to. Join the Club But for variety and breadth of discounts, plus ease of access, the web is the way to go. Sites like corporateperks.com, workingadvantage.com, workplaceperks.com and corporateshopping.com can best be described as mashups of priceline.com (PCLN) and Groupon (GRPN). They offer discounts to some alumni, some students and members of many special interest clubs, societies and groups, such as AAA, Actors Equity and the Zoological Society of San Diego -- and, in some cases, their friends and family members. After finding out if a program is available to you, using it is fairly straightforward. Sign into the site with whatever identification is required, browse the list of merchants and add your purchases to the shopping cart. For example, CorporatePerks offers a Lenovo thinkpad that retails for $700 for $600; the 15 percent discount is roughly the amount of a Lenovo employee discount. WorkingAdvantage has a two-day ticket to Universal Florida for $165.99, a $30 discount from the standard price. Large
- [By Jonas Elmerraji]
Nearest Resistance: $52
Nearest Support: $46.50
Catalyst: Verizon Stake BuyoutThere are two parties in the Verizon Wireless deal -- and I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about Verizon. After all, the communications giant is one of the most heavily traded names on the NYSE today thanks to the possibility that it could own 100% of its cash cow mobile business.
Shares are up close to 4% in today's session on the possibility that VZ could finally settle the issue -- but there's no two ways about it: $130 million is overpaying for what amounts to 45 million subscribers. Top rival AT&T (T) owns its entire 100-million subscriber network, and its market capitalization is just $180 billion, including its entire landline business.
In short, the deal isn't even close to a bargain -- but at least it's close to being over and done with. Technically, VOD is also the more attractive of the two. VZ has been in a downtrend since the start of May, something that even today's pop can't come close to changing.
I'd steer clear of Verizon this summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment