MARKET CURRENTS
real-time news and commentary for investors
MARKET CURRENTS
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Today - Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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5:21 PM MediciNova (MNOV) -45.1% AH after announcing preliminary results from a Phase 2b clinical study failed to show significant improvement for patients treated with its MN-221 asthma treatment. Comment!
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5:11 PM More on NetApp's FQ4: No explanation is provided for the soft FQ1 guidance in the earnings release. The guidance is another indication (I, II) of a tough IT spending environment, though the possibility of additional market share losses to EMC and others is also strong. Sales & marketing expenses only rose 3% Y/Y, but R&D expenses rose 26%. NTAP -22.1% AH. EMC -3.6%. STEC -1.2%. Earnings call starts at 5:30 PM ET (webcast). (PR) Comment!
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4:52 PM More on Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH): Q! beats across the board on a 4% Y/Y increase in total revenue. Net earnings jumped 60% Y/Y on continued momentum in its Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands. For Q2, the company guides to the high end of the range, now expecting an EPS Of $1.18 - $1.20, versus expectations of $1.18 per share. For the full year, EPS is seen in the range of $6.15 - $6.25 per share. THe Street view is for $6.18 per share. Shares +1.8% AH. Comment!
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4:32 PM More on H-P's FQ2: PC division sales flat Y/Y, much better than Dell's numbers and a big improvement from FQ1's 15% drop. Enterprise hardware -6% (-10% in FQ1) as server declines offset modest networking/storage increases. Software +22% Y/Y (+30% in FQ1), though Autonomy saw a significant license revenue drop. Printing -10% (-7% in FQ1) as mobile/Internet photo sharing take a toll. Services -1% (+1% in FQ1). $350M in shares repurchased. HPQ +5.7% AH. Earnings call just started. (PR) Comment!
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4:19 PM More on Pandora's FQ1: The company expects FQ2 revenue of $99M-$101M and EPS of -$0.03 to -$0.05 vs. a consensus of $99.9M and -$0.03. However, it's guiding for FY13 revenue of $420M-$427M and EPS of -$0.07 to -$0.11, above a consensus of $415.9M and -$0.17. Listener hours +14% Q/Q and +92% Y/Y to 3.09B. Active users +10% Q/Q and +53% Y/Y to 51.9M. 5.95% share of U.S. radio listening, up from 5.55% in FQ4, 3.11% in year-ago period. P +8.8% AH. (PR) Comment!
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4:10 PM Hewlett-Packard (HPQ): FQ2 EPS of $0.98 beats by $0.07. Revenue of $30.69B (-3% Y/Y) beats by $770M. Expects FQ3 EPS of $0.94-$0.97, below $1.02 consensus. Expects FY12 EPS of $4.05-$4.10, above $4.03 consensus. Shares +7.1% AH. (PR) 2 Comments
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3:42 PM Kinder Morgan Partners (KMP -0.4%) reduces the size of its planned $4.1B Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Canada after signing fewer contracts with shippers than expected. The contracts call for 510K bbl/day capacity, but that's ~150K less than KMP had previously announced, due to a few shippers failing to obtain their boards’ approvals. Comment!
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3:21 PM Coeur d'Alene Mines (CDE +1.9%) temporarily shuts down its Palmarejo mine in Mexico after access was blocked by a "small, unorganized group of employees," but does not expect the move to have a material impact on 2012 production. The mine produced 9M oz. of silver and 125K oz. of gold ounces in 2011. Comment!
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3:06 PM Newmont Mining (NEM +2.6%) says it will cut capital spending on a controversial gold mine project in Peru to $440M from a previously budgeted $1.5B over the next 18 months due to delays caused by government and environmental reviews. NEM is expected to make a final decision by the end of June on whether to go ahead with the project. Comment!
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2:46 PM Though it didn't come cheap, UBS and Nomura are praising SAP's (SAP -0.7%) $4.3B acquisition (I, II) of Ariba (ARBA). The former notes the kind of B2B transactions handled by Ariba's network cover 63% of all trade, and the latter argues the deal will help SAP achieve its goal of obtaining €2B in cloud revenue in 2015. Smaller Ariba rival SciQuest (SQI +6.2%) is rallying for the second straight day. Comment!
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2:45 PM In its Investor Day today, Armstrong Worldwide (AWI -0.2%) reaffirms FY12 revenue guidance that brackets to the high end of Street estimates, saying revenue should be between $2.9B - $3B. Street expectations are for $2.93B. Sees FY12 EBITDA margin should be around 14% - 16%. (webcast) Comment!
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2:40 PM Cove Energy (CNVGF.PK) shares end +11.2% in London to 249p, above the new 240p/share bid from Thailand's PTT and indicating investors think Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A -2%) may raise the offer. Heard On The Street's Andrew Peaple calculates Shell could yet pay up to $2.5B for Cove; it also has more firepower than PTT, with net debt to equity of 9.9% vs. PTT's 33%. Comment!
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2:25 PM Zale Corp.'s (ZLC +9%) jumps after beating FQ3 earnings estimates this morning. Losses narrowed as the company continues to post same-store sales growth, led by its domestic business. The company says momentum is continuing into the current quarter, with May month-to-date comp store sales currently up about 15%. Comment!
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2:24 PM S&P cuts its credit rating on Patriot Coal (PCX +17.4%) for the second time in seven days and says it's on watch for yet another downgrade, citing doubts about PCX's ability to meet near-term obligations amid the company's "highly uncertain" proposed refinancing. The rating is cut two notches to CCC, which denotes highly speculative credit, from B-. 1 Comment
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2:04 PM Splunk (SPLK +6.8%) is rallying for the third straight day ahead of this afternoon's FQ1 report. The analyst commentary (I, II) that has followed the machine data software vendor's strong April IPO has largely been positive, in spite of its rich valuation. Comment!
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2:00 PM Warnaco (WRC -0.6%) fares slightly better than the overall market after Brean Murray upgraded the shares to Buy on valuation earlier today. Brean says the company has turned a corner and the worst may be over for them. Comment!
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1:57 PM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU +4.7%), down ~40% since February, outperforms with the help of bullish commentary regarding its 7950 XRS core router line, launched yesterday. Deutsche thinks the products offer "meaningful improvements" over rival offerings, and could take 5%-10% of the U.S. core router market simply by leveraging Alcatel's mobile carrier relationships. Goldman thinks the hardware could cause some headaches for Juniper (JNPR -4.8%). (previous) Comment!
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