StemCell Therapy

It was a mixed day on the market, as tech stocks lagged. Outside of tech, it was a nice bounce back for stocks, and we'd expect sentiment around Apple's (AAPL - News) strong earnings to help influence the market's mood tomorrow. In general, we're still looking for a spring/summer pullback, but continue to view it as a buying opportunity. Apple's pullback, though, may have already occurred, and once again it looks like the company is proving the skeptics wrong.

The Stem Cell Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by BioTime (BTX - News) with a 14% gain. The Discount Retailer Stocks Index was the day's worst performing tickerspy Index, with Big Lots (BIG - News) down -24%.

Stocks finished mixed, with the Dow the lone loser off -9 points to 2,962. The Dow climbed 74 points to 13,002, while the Nasdaq rose 5 points to 1,372. Oil edged up 44 cents to $103.55 a barrel, while gold jumped $11.20 to $1,643.80 an ounce.

In economic news, the Conference Board said April's consumer confidence reading slid to 69.2 from a downwardly revised 69.5 in March. Economists had expected a reading of 69.7. Elsewhere, The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed the 10- and 20-city measures both fell -0.8% month over month in February and slid -3.6% and -3.5%, respectively, year over year. The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, meanwhile, said new home sales fell -7.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 328,000. The February number was revised higher to 353,000 from 313,000. Economics were looking for a March rate of 318,000.

In earnings news, shares of Coach (COH - News), the maker of high-end handbags, slipped -4.3% after the company posted a fiscal third-quarter profit of $225 million, or 77 cents per share, compared with $186 million, or 62 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 17% to $1.11 billion. Same-store sale rose 6.7%, but that was down from a year-earlier increase of 8.8%. Analyst had expected EPS of 75 cents on sales of $1.1 billion.

Shares of Align Technology (ALGN - News) surged 15.7% after the company said its first-quarter profit rose to $21.0 million, or 26 cents per share, from $15.8 million, or 20 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed to $135.1 million from $104.9 million. Analysts had expected a profit of 22 cents per share on $128.2 million in revenue. Align forecast an adjusted second-quarter profit of 26-28 cents per share on $140.2-143.7 million in sales. Analysts were expecting a profit of 24 cents per share and $135.6 million in revenue.

Dow component 3M (MMM - News), the maker of Post-its and other products, said its first-quarter profit climbed to $1.13 billion, or $1.59 per share, easily topping the $1.48 per share analysts expected. Revenue increased 2% to $7.49 billion, matching analyst estimates. Minnesota-based 3M raised its full-year guidance to $6.35-$6.50 a share from $6.25-$6.50. Shares of 3M rose 1.6%. More than 150 pros held 3M in their portfolios at the end of Q4 and more than 1,000 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.

Shares of BigLots plunged -24.1% after the closeout retailer said its first-quarter same-store sales figure will be slightly negative, news that is in stark contrast to a previous forecast calling for a 2-4% gain. The company's fiscal first quarter ends on April 28. Fifteen pros counted BigLots among their top holdings at the end of Q1 and nearly 160 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.

Shares of Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD - News) fell -5.9% after the company accidently released its Q1 results in an 8-K about an hour before the market closed. EPS jumped 21% to 98 cents, while sales climbed 38% to $251.1 million. Analysts were looking for EPS of 95 cents on revenue of $251.2 million.

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Apple to the Rescue

This entry was posted on April 25, 2012 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Stem Cell Negative. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |