Stocks Pare Losses; Greece Eyed

U.S. Market
Stocks pared early losses today as Greece and earnings were eyed.

Greek leaders proposed a six-month extension to the country’s bailout today in order to create some breathing room for more negotiation. Germany rejected the proposal as the Greek government didn’t agree to continue the austerity and reform measures that were attached to the bailout. Still, the offer is seen as a sign that Greece is willing to negotiate and that a deal could be reached.

Initial unemployment claims fell by a larger-than-expected 21,000 to 283,000 last week. The less volatile four-week moving average of claims was off 6,500 to 283,250.

At midday the Dow was down 0.1%, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while the Nasdaq was 0.4% higher.

Stocks on the Move
Shares of Wal-Mart (WMT) were down over 2.5% after the firm announced a disappointing forecast and plans to give raises to its U.S. workers. Over the last quarter, the retailer said that same-store sales grew 1.2% the second-straight quarter of growth after a long period of declines. However, management’s expectation that the firm will earn between $4.70 and $5.05 for the full year was well below analyst expectations of $5.19 a share. Wal-Mart also said it would raise its starting wage to $9 an hour and up to $10 an hour by next year.

In our opinion, Priceline’s (PCLN) results indicate that the network advantage is intact. Total bookings were up 17% in the fourth quarter (23% constant currency), and the currency headwind of 6 percentage points was slightly below the midpoint of guidance (which called for 7.5). International fourth-quarter constant currency bookings rose 27% and were well ahead of management's 16%-23% guidance (and our 21% estimate), while U.S. bookings growth was 3.4%, in line with company guidance for 0%-5%. In total, 2014 bookings growth of 28% was in line with our estimate. Shares soared 8% on the report.

Foreign Markets
European markets were mostly higher. In late trading, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% while Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC rose 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.

Asian shares were also up today. The Shanghai Composite, Nikkei 225 and Hang Seng were up 0.8%, 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.