Stocks Lower on Mixed News from the Congress! Stocks on Wall Street were modestly lower at midday as the nation marches closer to potential default without a debt ceiling deal in place, but headlines continue to flow from Washington about the ongoing negotiations being held between Democrats and Republicans. The lone economic release of the day, the Empire Manufacturing report, was lower than expected but had little effect on the market. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index dropped 4.8 points to 1.5 in October, which was below the consensus expectation. COMPANY NEWS: Dow components Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Coca-Cola (KO) were both fractionally higher following their quarterly reports… Citigroup (C), the third of the major U.S. banks to report, posted earnings that fell a bit below analysts’ consensus forecast and that were down from last year’s level. Citi’s revenue from bond trading and mortgage refinancing fell significantly from the prior year but its stock was little changed near noon… Apple (AAPL) shares hovered near $500 a piece as the company sent out invitations to an October 22 event, where it is expected to unveil new models of the iPad and iPad mini, and hired Angela Ahrendts, who was formerly the CEO of Burberry (BURBY), to be senior vice president of its retail and online stores. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Mac-Gray (TUC), which jumped 42% after agreeing to be acquired by CSC ServiceWorks for $21.25 per share. Also higher were shares of discount broker Charles Schwab (SCHW), which rose over 5% and hit a new 52-week high after the company’s third quarter results topped estimates. Among the noteworthy losers was rare-earth miner Molycorp (MCP), which plunged 19% after filing to sell $200M in common stock and saying its revenue and cash flow from operations have been "significantly lower" than the company originally expected. Also lower were shares of Teradata (TDC), which were downgraded by at least four research firms and dropped 16% following the company’s third quarter profit warning.
Mario Randholm
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