Charles Schwab (SCHW) announced that third-quarter profit increased by 12% to $247 million, or 19 cents a share, up from $220 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenue increased by one percent to $1.2 billion from $1.18 billion.
The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task interviews Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal
Gannett (GCI) announced better-than-expected revenue and higher profit due to strong television advertising revenue from the Olympics and the presidential election, as well as online subscription revenue. Third-quarter revenue increased by 3.4 percent to $1.31 billion, while analysts expected revenue of $1.29 billion.
Costco (COST) was upgraded by BMO Capital (BMO) to market perform from underperformed due to lower costs and higher sales. A $106 price target was issued.
In trading on Monday, communications services shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.6%. Leading the group were shares of B Communications Limited (BCOM), up about 29.8% and shares of Clearwire (CLWR) up about 26.3% on the day.
The Daily Ticker’s Henry Blodget talks to Nate Silver.
By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators decreased their overall US dollar short positions last week for a second consecutive week as traders trimmed bets for higher risk currencies.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, trimmed their total US dollar short position to a total of $6.43 billion on October 9th from a total short position of $16.31 billion on October 2nd, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment for the euro fell sharply last week after a slight decline the previous week. Euro net short positions or bets against the currency rose to 72,570 contracts on October 9th from the previous week’s total of 50,265 net short contracts on October 2nd. Euro positions had improved to their best standing in over a year on September 25th when short positions totaled 50,238 contracts before falling back in the past few weeks.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity.
Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.
(The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.)
GBP: British pound sterling positions fell last week after climbing higher for three straight weeks that brought positions to a new high level for 2012. British pound sterling speculative positions declined to a total of 22,572 net long contracts on October 9th following a total of 30,094 net long contracts on October 2nd. British pound positions, on October 2nd, were at their highest level since May 3, 2011 when long positions numbered 30,807 contracts.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts fell last week after increasing for a two straight weeks. Japanese yen positions decreased to a total of 12,914 net long contracts reported on October 9th following a total of 29,335 net long contracts on October 2nd.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions edged just slightly higher and improved to the best positioning since December 2011. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 306 net short contracts on October 9th following a total of 984 net short contracts as of October 2nd. Franc contracts continue to be at just about a neutral position against the US dollar and at their best levels since 2011.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined slightly for a third consecutive week following a streak of eight weeks of rises. Canadian dollar positions decreased to a total of 95,628 net long contracts as of October 9th following a total of 101,176 net long contracts that were reported for October 2nd. Before falling the last three weeks, Canadian dollar positions had risen higher for eight consecutive weeks and surged to the highest level in over two years on September 18th.
AUD: The Australian dollar positions fell sharply lower last week for a second consecutive week and brought Aussie positions to their lowest level since July 31st. Aussie speculative futures positions decreased to a total net amount of 39,814 long contracts on October 9th after totaling 63,743 net long contracts as of October 2nd. Australian dollar positions, three weeks ago, had surpassed their most recent 2012 high level on August 21st when long positions equaled 86,882 contracts.
NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions decreased last week after rising for three consecutive weeks and to the highest level since February. NZD contracts dropped to a total of 16,710 net long contracts as of October 9th following a total of 21,381 net long contracts on October 2nd. Kiwi contracts were at their highest level since February 27th when positions totaled 22,114 long contracts before last week’s decline.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts improved slightly last week after dipping the previous week. Peso positions edged higher to a total of 136,392 net long speculative positions as of October 9th following a total of 135,865 long contracts that were reported for October 2nd. Peso contracts have now been over 100,000 long positions for five straight weeks and are just off their highest level in over two years that was reached on September 25th.
Article by CountingPips.com
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