Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Down market on higher oil prices & company earnings

Stocks pulled back today on worries about the high price of oil and a more careful look at company earnings. Dow was down 104, decliners over advancers 5-2 & NAZ down 31. This week starts with 2 down days after a great week last week. Oil came within in whisper of 120 but slipped back to settle at 119.37. Gas at the pump reached another record 3.51 yesterday, up 66¢ from last year. As I said this morning, I saw a lot of 3.60 prices as the base price at a number of stations in the last few days. Earnings reports are getting mediocre reviews if that. The scariest was DuPont (DD) talking about weakness in their US business, down 2.09. The trend seems to be that it's getting harder & harder to beat estimates & many of those have already been lowered.

Yahoo (YHOO) just reported earnings, beating estimates. They earned 10 or 11¢ (depending whether how a special gain is handled) compared to 9¢ estimate, but down from 37¢ last year. The stock is down a few pennies in after hours trading. This is the type of report that is more common & not being taken well. Their comments by phone will help answer questions.

No comments: