Yahoo Finance Stocks Higher After Earnings
U.S. Market
Stocks were higher this morning as earnings season rolls on.
Industrial production was off 0.6% in March from the previous month. The decline was slightly larger than expected and is the biggest drop since 2012. Mining and utilities weighed overall production. Capacity utilization fell to 78.4% from 79.0% in the month.
The Empire State index, which measures manufacturing activity in New York, fell to -1.19 in April from 6.90 in March. Economists had expected the index to rise to 8.0 in the month. A reading below zero indicates a contraction in manufacturing activity.
As expected, the ECB held rates steady today. ECB head Mario Draghi also provided an upbeat assessment of the European economy and the success of the central’s banks quantitative easing program.
At midday the Dow was up 0.3% while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were each 0.5% higher.
Stocks on the Move
Bank of America (BAC) said this morning that it earned 27 cents a share in the first-quarter. This was ahead of the 5 cent a share loss it had in the year-ago quarter but below the 29 cents a share expected by economists. Trading results were off 5.1% in the quarter, excluding an accounting adjustment, compared to the big trading gains reported earlier this week by JPMorgan (JPM) . Shares were off less than 1% at midday.
Google (GOOG) shares fell again today after EU regulators confirmed it is filing antitrust charges against the firm. They allege that Google has abused its online search position to promote its other services over those of rivals.
Nokia (NOK) has reached an agreement to buy Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) in a $16.6 billion all-stock deal. The move will bring together two of the smaller wireless networking hardware providers in an effort to compete better with larger rivals. The deal has been in the works for years. Nokia shares were off 2.5% at midday.
Intel's (INTC) first-quarter results arrived in line with its lowered guidance late Tuesday. First-quarter revenue for Intel was $12.8 billion, down 13% sequentially and flat year-over-year. Intel’s newly titled client computing group, which combines the mobile and PC groups, had revenue of $7.4 billion, down 8% year-over-year as desktop volumes were down 16% on lower enterprise demand. Data center revenue was up 19% year-over-year, with unit volumes up 15% and average selling prices up 5% as cloud growth accelerates. Gross margin was down 4.9% sequentially to 60.5% due to higher unit costs stemming from a higher mix of 14-nanometer product, lower platform volumes, and higher factory start-up costs. Although the firm forecasted flat revenue for the year, management lowered its capital spending budget to better align capacity with demand. Shares were up 4.5% at midday.
Foreign Markets
European markets were higher after Draghi’s comments. The Paris CAC was up 0.7%, the FTSE 100 was 0.3% higher while Germany’s DAX was flat.
Asian shares were mixed on the day. The Shanghai Composite dropped 1.2%, the Nikkei 225 was off 0.2% while the Hang Seng was up 0.2%.
