Reuters: Markets hit their 2009 highs.
Reuters: Dodd is set to unveil his financial reform bill which calls for merging many bank regulators.
Reuters: Kraft’s (NYSE:KFT) bid for Cadbury turned hostile.
Reuters: A survey of economists predicted strong GDP growth in 2010. Read More
Updated throughout the day.
Updated 1.05 PM EST: Las Vagas Sands (NYSE:LVS) will try to raise $2.5 billion though an IPO in Hong Kong (AP)
Updated 11.12 AM EST: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is considering a joint venture with Protalix Biotherapeutics (AMAX:PLX) and may buy the Israeli company. (Reuters)
Updated 9.50 AM EST: The Fed will keep rates as they are (CBNC)
A deal for Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to take control of NBCU from GE (NYSE:GE) is imminent, as usual. (NYTimes)
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is considering buying Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) tax credits (WSJ)
Bank of NY Mellon’s (NYSE:BK) CEO turned down a chance to be considered for the Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) CEO job. (WSJ)
Roger Nightingale, economist at Pointon York, says the world faces a 1930s type depression if government stimulus packages are pulled too soon (CNBC)
A draft order to approve AT&T’s (NYSE:T) $2.8 billion acquisition of Centennial Communications Corp is circulating at the Federal Communications Commission. (The Deal)
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) top advertising strategist is not leaving his job. (AppleInsider)
Sprint (NASDAQ:S) is starting to downplay the importance of the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre compared to other smartphones it is marketing. (Barron’s)
Shares of Old Dominion (NASDAQ:ODFL) could move from $27 to $40 in a year (BusinessWeek)
The market share of Apple’s Mac has not been hurt by the release of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7.
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Douglas A. McIntyre
Reuters: Investors in the banking sector were disturbed by the CIT (NYSE:CIT) bankruptcy.
Reuters: Summers will lead a high level meeting on the economy.
Reuters: US companies are holding more cash.
Reuters: The Fed is likely to keep interest rates flat due to economic uncertainty. Read More
We have seen the earnings reports from all five DJIA components which were on deck to report this Tuesday. We are seeing a theme here: almost all posted lower earnings from a year ago that still beat earnings estimates, but this continues the trend that it is on cost cuts and/or on much lower revenues from a year ago. The earnings came from Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), The Coca Company (NYSE: KO), EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), and United Technologies (UTX).
We provided details on each, with guidance where appropriate, some added color, and how well these have each done in stock performance since the June 30 close of Q2 and since the March 9 close where traders use as the end of the bear market on the index closing bell basis.
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Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) had a better quarter than many expected. The drug company reported financial results for third-quarter 2009. Revenues were $11.6 billion, a decrease of 3%. EPS fell to $.51 from $.62 on an adjusted diluted basis.
Revenue from the primary care unit of the company was $5.5 billion, a decline of 4% compared with $5.8 billion in the year-ago quarter. Operationally, Primary revenues were flat, as the strong international performance of Lyrica and Lipitor was offset primarily by lower Lipitor revenues in the U.S. Read More
We have provided some basic details on Tuesday’s earnings reports from DJIA components Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), DuPont or EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
Included are the earningd estimates from Thomson Reuters. Then we also gave some added color where applicable. Lastly, we gave the performance of each stock since June 30 and then the recognized date of the close of March 9 that traders use for the day the bear market died.
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The short interest in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was steady in the period that ended on September 30 at 16 million shares.The bet being made against RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) rose 13% to 13% to 19.2 million. The shares short in other major techs stocks dropped.
Shares short in Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCD) dropped 14% to 19.1 million. Shares short in Juniper (NADSAQ:JNPR) dropped 11% to 36.8 million. The short interest in Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) dropped 8% to 12.9 million shares. Read More
Reuters: The sell-off in Chinese stocks may be overdone based on earnings.
Reuters: A report blamed the SEC for not doing its job investigating Madoff.
Reuters: The Fed says the risks to the American economy have dropped.
Reuters: A Pfizer (PFE) whistleblower made more than $51 million. Read More
Now that we are out of the woods in the crash scenario, assuming this week is no ill omen, investors may want to know which of the big companies would start to deploy their billions and billions of dollars in cash for large mergers or strategic bolt-on acquisitions. In all of these companies, we are not taking the long-term or short-term debt obligations into account. This is merely the cash, cash equivalents, and the long-term investments listed on the books.
But as these are the biggest companies in the world with what should be credible balance sheets (in most cases anyhow), we are also including a second combined figure for “receivables and inventories” for a few of these companies to show what the firms could use for additional sources of capital…. These figures do not include untapped credit lines and shelf registrations which could amount to untold billions more. Because of this calculation, our figures may differ slightly from what companies have listed as cash and equivalents.
Can all of this cash go for mergers? What about for dividends? No way. But a large portion of it could be used for mergers and buyouts under the right circumstances. We removed the companies which are either permanently out of the game of M&A or those which are temporarily out of it. But of the fourteen mega-caps (over $100 billion in market cap) which we did cover, you would be shocked at the cash balance these companies are sitting on without even considering the total cumulative effect of credit lines, inventories, receivables, and open shelf registrations. The first total cash figure comes to a whopping $335 billion. This number is far more if you count the companies with exceptions.
These major companies broken down by cash balance and what sort of merger these could consider are Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL). Even after a huge rally, $335 billion and then some could go a very long way.
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Fidelity Management & Research Company, or FMR, was among the giants which released its quarterly holdings over the most recent days. While it is always interesting to see which holdings are the top holdings, most traders look at the big portfolio changes to try to gain insight into the minds of fund managers. We looked through the top holdings valued at $1 billion or more solely for the Fidelity Management & Research Company unit and we looked for positions where the position changed by more than 10% up or down by measure of share count rather than by the dollar amount.
There were some serious additions in Q2 in the financial sector to its portfolios. The tech sector saw some mixed changes, while the drug and consumer changes looked lower. There was a surprise cut in a key conglomerate and a huge add to one of the Battlestar Galactica coffee stocks.
Of the larger changes to its top holdings in financial stocks, FMR’s major large changes were all additional stakes being taken. WELLS FARGO & CO (NYSE: WFC) was listed as $6.05 billion via 249.45 million shares, a gain of roughly 36 million shares. J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO INC. (NYSE: JPM) was worth $5.44 billion from a stake of almost 159.6 million shares, a gain of over 7.1 million shares. BANK OF AMERICA CORP. (NYSE: BAC) was listed as $4.17 billion via a stake of 315.9 million shares, but that is effectively a doubling in size of shares from its Q1 reporting. GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC. (NYSE: GS) was listed as a $3.44 billion stake via 23.35 million shares, a gain of roughly 7 million shares of stock. MORGAN STANLEY (NYSE: MS) was a stake worth some $2.5 billion via some 87.8 million shares, also more than double its previous shares listed.
APPLE INC. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of its top few holdings at $5.96 billion, and this was a gain of more than 10% to 4,59 million shares. MICROSOFT CORP. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was a huge gain by almost one-third of its stake to some 163 million shares of stock worth a reported $3.87 billion. ORACLE CORP. (NASDAQ: ORCL) was listed as being worth some $2.79 billion via 130.3 million shares, a gain of about 15.3 million shares. IBM (IBM) was worth $1.00 billion via 9.62 million shares, but this is after a drop of roughly 4.3 million shares.
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Diabetes is becoming an epidemic in the U.S. and the Western World. The ties to obesity are often direct, so the potential treatments are often directly tied as well. We did a recent dig down for the next $170 billion opportunity for eight different major diseases and conditions, and now we have conducted a much deeper dig down specifically in the field of diabetes over at BioHealthInvestor.com. We have recent and upcoming FDA action and data being presented from Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO), MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD), Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN), Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Alkermes Inc. (NASDAQ: ALKS), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN). There is a mini-race going on between some of the later stage studies from obesity and diabetes candidates from Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA), VIVUS, inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS), Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN). Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN) and StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM) were noted as two of the stem cell hopes, although stem cells may later rather than sooner.
Generex Biotechnology Corporation (NASDAQ: GNBT), Spherix Incorporated (NASDAQ: SPEX) and Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCBB: ORMP) were all noted in the much smaller or emerging plays. Home Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HDIX) and Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ: PODD) have both recently had key events as the interest in test equipment companies continues to remain high.
FULL STORY with much more detail at BioHealthInvestor.com.
MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ: MNKD) is getting hit after the company announced that it priced a secondary offering of 7,400,000 shares of its common stock. While the press release does not say what price the deal came at, the syndicate group told us this went out at $7.35 per share. The company’s chairman, CEO, and principal stockholder, Alfred E. Mann, is purchasing 1,000,000 of these shares from the underwriters.
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Safety and efficacy data are critical to drug candidates. But what really makes a potential drug attractive is strong top-line data, a new biotech-based treatment, and a massive potential market.
With help from Thomson Pharma and our own backlog of coverage, BioHealthInvestor.com, a 247wallst.com website, sought to find the most promising biopharmaceutical candidate from both biotech and pharmaceutical companies in each of the top 10 most prevalent medical conditions in the U.S. Read More
This week will mark the first crest of earnings season as we have 11 of the 30 DJIA components reporting earnings this week alone. On Tuesday, we have earnings from Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), DuPont (NYSE: DD), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO). On Wednesday, we have Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) on deck. On Thursday, we have 3M Company (NYSE: MMM), AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T), McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) and Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT). Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO), a fairly recent DJIA-booted also reports Wednesday. We have detailed earnings estimates and additional preview data below:
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Here are some of today’s top stories affecting key drug and biotech stocks, accompanied with links through to more detailed information and analysis at BioHealthInvestor.com:
New short-interest data suggest traders are now increasing their directional bets against biotech stocks. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) are in the top 10 of all large-cap stocks with the greatest increase in the number of shares shorted.
Eli Lilly has the FDA’s OK to market its Effient blood thinner, but the black-box warning on its label is so strong that it’s hard to believe it can dent the market share of the Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY)/ Bristol Myers Inc. (NYSE: BMY) drug Plavix.
OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: OSIP) announced new data from its Phase III Saturn study of Tarceva, and it’s likely an incremental positive for the cancer drug over rival Eli Lilly & Co.’s (NYSE: LLY) drug Altima.
-The 24/7 Wall St. Team
Short sellers upped their investments in stocks of the most prominent financial firms. Short interest in Bank of America (BAC), AIG (AIG), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Freddie Mac (FRE) all rose for the period ending June 30.
Short sellers also increased position in several regional banks. Short interest in KeyCorp (KEY) rose 31% to 38.1 million. Shares sold short in Regions Financial (RF) were up 13% to 65.9 million. Shares short in Bank of NY Mellon (BK) rose 31% to 14.2 million, and the short interest in Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) rose 75% to 58.8 million. Read More
It is hard to say whether a person is better off stopping smoking and lessening their chances of a heart attack or killing themselves. Some of the anti-smoking drugs from Pfizer (PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) can have terrible side effects. The drugs are Chantix, made by Pfizer, and Zyban, made by GlaxoSmithKline. Inexplicably, the FDA will allow the treatments to stay on the market.
The New York Times reports that “Federal drug regulators warned Wednesday that patients taking two popular drugs to stop smoking should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness, as reports mount of suicides among the drugs’ users.” Read More
Reuters: California declared a financial emergency.
Reuters: An SEC attorney raised concern about a Madoff report in 2004.
Reuters: Auto parts supplier Lear filed for bankruptcy.
Reuters: NYC apartment sales are down more than 50%.
Reuters: Beijing Automotive will bid for Opel.
Reuters: GM told a judge asset sales was its only option. Read More
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) shares are at session highs and well of the lows of the day in the early afternoon Thursday after Japan okayed one of the company’s human growth hormones, the first approval in Japan of a generic biotech drug. With the recent talks of President Obama wanting generic biologics, the approval process in Japan is probably not an isolated event and should not be ignored for broader implications.
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| Today’s top tickerspy Indexes | |
| Home Furnishing R... | +14.1% |
| Ethanol and Biofu... | +5.1% |
| Electronics Retai... | +2.1% |
| Diabetes Stocks | +2.0% |
| Memory Chip Stock... | +2.0% |
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