Month: April 2012

South Korea is having a parliamentary election today, but what’s back in the headline is North Korea. 29-year-old North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un commanded ahead of the South Korean voting of the fueling of a rocket that will put up a satellite. This is also in coincidence to the 100th birthday of North Korean family dynasty’s first leader, Kim Il-Sung.North Korea agreed to not pursue any nuclear related developments just a few months ago in exchange for continued foreign aids like food supplies. Countries in agreement with it previously clearly do not see this satellite launch as a peaceful event like it has claimed. The challenging party in today’s South Korean election is viewed as more liberal and pro-North Korea while the current ruling party is viewed as more conservative and anti-North Korea. The challenging coalition criticized the ruling bodies of failing to deliver the 7% growth it promised. South Korean benchmark stock index fell 6% in the past year and its economy growth dropped from 4.3% to 3.2%.Stay tuned for more news and updates, I’m Julia Sun for the Financial News Network.

Italy auctioned €11B of Treasury bills today. Yield on the 10-year bond shed 17 basis points to 5.51% this morning US time even though the demand was not low at 1.5 times. Italy’s one-year borrowing cost rose for the first time since the their Prime Minister Mario Monti took office last November, signaling the return of the sovereign bond market tension. The cost of insuring Italian debt against default is on the rise, five-year Italian credit default swap (CDS) rose 11 basis points to 439. Last week, Monti sent the Italian Parliament a plan to rejuvenate Italy’s labor market, and this is his fourth major attempt to make Italy more competitive. The country has a 9.3% unemployment rate and is going through its fourth recession since 2001; it’s a beautiful country, and dysfunctional.Stay tuned for more news and updates, I’m Julia Sun for the Financial News Network.

Alcoa opened the first quarter earnings season after the bell yesterday and it surprised the market on the upside. It earned $94 million, or 9c/share, during the first three months of the year. Revenues edged up slightly to $6 billion, despite of the 9% slide in aluminum prices over the course the season.Alcoa is typically the first company in the Dow to report earnings and so far it boosted investors’ confidence in corporate profits. The three major US indexes had the biggest drop yesterday since Dec of last year and we are seeing rebound in all industries today, especially in consumer, industrial and financial tickers. For more news and updates, keep it right here at the Financial News Network. I’m Julia Sun reporting from New York City.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) today had its estimates raised by Jefferies (JEF) after issuing positive first quarter guidance. A hold rating was issued with a price target of $72.

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 dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

Caterpillar Incorporated (CAT) maintained its quarterly dividend of 46 cents per share. The dividend will be payable on May 19, 2012, to stockholders of record at the close of business, April 23, 2012.

In trading on Wednesday, general contractors & builders shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 4.4%. Leading the group were shares of Pultegroup (PHM), up about 7.8% and shares of M/I Homes (MHO) up about 5.7% on the day.

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.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) announced it would acquire Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) unit BD Biosciences Discovery Labware for $730 million in cash.Corning expects the deal to add $0.05 per share, excluding amortization, by 2016.GLW expects the deal to add to earnings slightly in 2013.GLW intends on continuing with its current share buyback activity, and will use part of domestic cash to fund the deal.Meanwhile, BDX said it sees a gain on the sale, adding that EPS from the unit for FY 2012 had been estimated at $0.23 – $0.27.

Aluminum maker Alcoa (AA) reported that it earned $0.10 per share in its first quarter, surpassing analyst estimates of a $0.04 per share loss. Revenue was $6 billion, beating estimates of $5.77 billion, with the company saying that it was experiencing rapid growth in the Chinese market.