Month: April 2012

Kraft (KFT) was upgraded today by JP Morgan (JPM) to overweight from neutral with a price target of $45 after the release of a positive Nielsen report, and the company should be able to boost its dividend. Shares are higher by about one percent.

The Daily Ticker’s Henry Blodget and Dan Gross interview journalist Tim Noah about his new book “The Great Divergence”.

Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

In trading on Monday, specialty retail shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.3%. Leading the group were shares of Barnes & Noble (BKS), up about 66.6% and shares of Build A Bear Workshop (BBW) up about 1.8% on the day.

Investors are ringing in the new trading week digesting the news that Spain’s economy has entered another recession. Good morning, this is Kristin Bianco with the Week Ahead Market Report for April 23, 2012.

4-24-12-Ashland (NYSE:ASH) reported fiscal Q2 EPS of $1.52, beating estimates by $0.14.Revenues in the quarter rose 2% year-over-year to $2.1 billion, inline with consensus estimates.Operating in over 100 countries, Ashland Inc. provides the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Ashland’s chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, personal care, pharmaceutical, tissue and towel, and water treatment.

4-24-12-Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE:APD) reported fiscal Q2 EPS of $1.31, which may not be comparable to estimates of $1.35.Revenues in the quarter fell 2.5% year-over-year to $2.34 billion, missing estimates by $180 million.SmarTrend is bullish on shares of Air Products & Chemicals and our subscribers were alerted to buy on November 30, 2011 at $82.49. The stock has risen 7.6% since the alert was issued.

This is what’s in the news for Wednesday, April 25, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. gasoline-futures prices fell 16c a gallon over the past eight trading days, as more U.S. crude becomes available for refining into gasoline and concerns about a shortage of refining capacity fade. Reuters reports Facebook’s (FB) recent $1B acquisition of Instagram and its $550M purchase of patents from Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) may add about a week to its IPO timing. Reuters also reports Human Genome Sciences (HGSI), which turned down an unsolicited $2.6B takeover bid by GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), says it’s reviewing strategic alternatives, including selling the company. Finally, Bloomberg reports Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) may spend hundreds of millions of dollars investigating $24M in alleged Mexican bribes as the U.S. government considers if the company or its executives also broke the law by covering up an internal probe.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) reported Q1 EPS of $1.22, topping estimates by $0.27.Revenues in the quarter rose 30% year-over-year to $19.4 billion, beating estimates by $1 billion.Boeing sees 2012 EPS of $4.15-$4.35, vs. its prior guidance of $4.05-$4.25 given in January, vs. estimates of $4.49; the company cites reduction in litigation-related reserve.

Economic data coming out of the Commerce Department this morning; Orders for U.S. durable goods fell in March by the most in three years. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years dropped 4.2%, well above economists forecast of a 1.7% decline.This data is due to the troubles in Europe and the slowdown in China as well as the end of the strongest 10-quarter performance in a decade on business investments.This data has not deterred the markets though. Positive corporate earnings lead the way in the beginning of the session today with the Dow up over a 0.5%, the S&P 500 up over 1% and the Nasdaq soaring over 2%.