Stock futures have traded mixed this morning after narrow stock
losses Thursday. Futures are more recently sitting just in positive
territory and weekly gains look safe. Consolidation continues for the
broad averages, which again charted fresh 2009 highs this week. Palm
(
PALM) is an active decliner after beating with a smaller-than-expected
loss but issuing more stock.
Asian and European stocks largely declined. U.S. stocks ended just in the red on Thursday.
There is little in the way of economic news slated for release
Friday, leaving Wall Street to look ahead to next week's Federal
Reserve monetary policy meeting.
Crude is trading down $0.42 at $72.05 a barrel. Gold is up $1.60 at
$1,015. The dollar is modestly firmer against the yen and the euro.
Palm (PALM) was a mixed mover in last evening's session, declining
into the latter part of the extended-hours period and picking up with
more modest losses, in active volume, this morning.
Palm reported Q1 non-GAAP revs of $360.7 mln, down from $366.8 mln
in the year ago quarter. Non-GAAP loss was $0.10 per share, vs. a year
ago loss of $0.12 per share. The Street view was revenue of $291 mln
and a loss of $0.25 per share.
The company shipped a total of 823,000 smartphone units during the
quarter, representing a 134 percent increase from the fourth quarter of
fiscal year 2009 and a year-over-year decrease of 30 percent.
Smartphone sell-through for the quarter was 810,000 units, up 76
percent from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 and down 21 percent
year-over-year.
The company's planned product launches with additional carriers in
the second half of its fiscal year, together with continuing sales from
products launched in the first half of its fiscal year, are expected to
yield stronger operating performance, resulting in non-GAAP Adjusted
Revenues for fiscal year 2010 of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion, it said.
The Street view is $1.57 bln in revenue.
The company's plan to sell 16 million shares provided some of the downward pressure, however.
Analyst actions dominated early headlines.
JP Morgan analysts lift their view on the homebuilder sector to
Positive from Negative. "While fundamentals will likely not demonstrate
an uninterrupted solid rate of improvement over the next six to 12
months, we believe that not only is housing solidly past its trough,
but over the next 24 months will continue to recover and drive further
upside to the current rally in the home-builder stocks," the analyst
said in a note, according to MarketWatch.
