Thursday, June 11, 2009

Exec. Pay Oversight; New PG CEO; HD Cautious

The following is brought to you by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. Because ISR happens to be affiliated with a broker-dealer I must tell you that the following is not intended as advertising by a broker-dealer and is not a research report.

The Dow closed yesterday, June 10, 2009 at 8739.02 down 0.27%.
The current divisor for the Dow found at today's page C4 of The Wall St. Jrnl is
.132319125
Yesterday's numerator was 1,156.34. This is the sum of all 30 closing prices. A short cut is to multiply the closing Dow (8739.02) by the Divisor (.132319125)
The average closing price of yesterday's Dow Jones was $38.54

If yesterday morning before the market opened you had purchased $100 of each of the Dow 30 shares (assuming you could buy fractional shares and assuming no transaction costs) and sold at the close you would have lost $330 ($115,950 - $115,620).

BAC bank of America, GE and JPM JP Morgan Chase were listed among 15 most active on NYSE.

A read of today's 6/11/09 print editions of: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, Financial Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution yields the following stories about Dow Jones 30 component companies:

The major story affecting Dow companies this morning was that Treasury Sec'y Geithner said on Wed. that Obama wants Congress to pass new laws giving regulators power to foce companies to let shareholders have more say in setting pay for execs. Also a "pay czar" would be named to reject compensation plans for execs at companies getting gov. aid. This story ran in IBD at p. A1 naming AXP American Express; also front page of Fin. Times; and front page A1 of NYTimes naming BAC Bank of America.

Fin. Times at p. 8 has an editorial entitled "An escape too soon for US banks" criticizing the US Treasury's decision to release 10 of the Banks from the Tarp program, JPM JPMorgan was named.

Another big story today is PG Proctor & Gamble announced Wed. that it chose 29-year company vet Bob McDonald as its 12th CEO. This was at p. A12 of the AJC, A2 of IBD, p. 3B of USA Today (describing a "mountain of challenges" McDonald faces.) The FT at p.14 also has a favorable story on PG entitled "P&G growth in emerging markets eyed" that talks about McDonald's intent to pursue growth in the developing world such as India and China.

Home Depot HD increased the top end of its earnings guidance for the year yesterday but described the outlook as "less bad" - that from P. 17 of FT. IBD at p. A1 states that HP's target was increased from $1.32 to $1.42; AJC at A11 was more rosy leading with a paragraph stating that HD had a strong performance in May. FT at p. 12 had a nice turn of a phrase starting their article on HD with: "Who does not wish to dance on the sunlit uplands of the recovered economy?" further stating that HD yesterday told analysts what life will be like once the recession fades into memory.

Back to the Banks or back to BAC Bank of America - front page A1 of WSJ today said Fed. Reserve officials harshly criticized BAC and its CEO in emails after BAC tried to pull out of its deal to buy Merrill Lynch according to newly discovered documents. A similar story is at page B1 of today's NYTimes. A favorable story about BAC is at p. C3 of WSJ about BlackRock Inc. poised to become the nation's top money management firm. BlackRock is partially owned by BAC, the article notes.

T AT&T and VZ Verizon are named in an article at p. B3 of WSJ describing a possible deal between SprintNextel combining its long-distance network with Level3 Communications that would compete with T and VZ in the markets for carrying dta across the Internet. VZ is also metioned in Heard on the Street at p.C14 WSJ as causing shares of Atlantic Tele-Network to soar because it had purhased some wireless oepations from VZ that regulators forced VZ to sell after the Alltel acquisition.

The newest member of the Dow (along with TRV Travelers) CSCO Cisco is the subject of an article at p. A4 of IBD that said that CSCO is losing business because of its entry into the server market and its new rivalry with former longtime server partners. These former allies are now steering sales to Brocade Communications Systems.

KO Coke's VP Harry Anderson will become head of a Global Business and Technology Services unit according to AJC at p. A12.

IBM is mentioned in an article at p. B1 of WSJ as losing a high-profile M&A executive to Dell.

Although not an article, at p. C5 of WSJ is a Notice of Offer by Intel INTC to purchase Wind River Systems, Inc. at $11.50 per share.

JNJ Johnson & Johnson got a plug today at p.D2 of WSJ about how antipsychotic drugs are seen effective in kids. Risperdal, a unit of JNJ, stands to benefit from its products that are approved to treat pediatric patients.

There is a general article at p. B8 of WSJ about Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, a successful U.S. advertising agencies that is now expanding overseas that names some Dow companies as clients such as a joint venture with GE's NBC Universal, MSF Microsoft and KO Coke.

Yesterday's Closing Prices June 10, 2009 of the Dow Jones Industrial Average:

Symb/Last/Change/% Change/Vol./ Market
T $24.28 +0.07 0.29% 33,385,111 NYSE
AA $11.49 +0.34 3.05% 47,457,234 NYSE
AXP $26.69 -0.24 0.89% 18,006,450 NYSE
BAC $11.98 -0.08 0.66% 326,723,709 NYSE
BA $52.3 -0.05 0.1% 6,553,939 NYSE
CAT $37.62 -0.62 1.62% 14,913,324 NYSE
CVX $70.22 +0.03 0.04% 14,334,584 NYSE
CSCO $19.95 -0.13 0.65% 58,337,750 NASDAQ-GS
KO $48.41 -0.68 1.39% 14,111,836 NYSE
DIS $25.1 -0.23 0.91% 11,764,366 NYSE
DD $26.77 -0.16 0.59% 9,253,646 NYSE
XOM $73.84 +0.72 0.98% 27,332,935 NYSE
GE $13.4 -0.17 1.25% 81,781,411 NYSE
HPQ $36.79 -0.05 0.14% 14,149,410 NYSE
HD $24.39 +0.04 0.16% 24,334,483 NYSE
INTC $16.46 +0.04 0.24% 48,764,413 NASDAQ-GS
IBM $108.35 +0.21 0.19% 7,570,955 NYSE
JPM $34.84 -0.42 1.19% 60,117,922 NYSE
JNJ $55.66 -0.04 0.07% 13,244,078 NYSE
KFT $25.85 -0.36 1.37% 13,485,470 NYSE
MCD $58.36 -0.72 1.22% 9,995,801 NYSE
MRK $25.59 -0.13 0.51% 12,840,879 NYSE
MSFT $22.55 +0.47 2.13% 61,145,770 NASDAQ-GS
PFE $14.05 -0.08 0.57% 47,184,742 NYSE
PG $52.08 -0.33 0.63% 12,885,071 NYSE
PG $52.08 -0.33 0.63% 12,885,071 NYSE
MMM $60.46 +0.12 0.2% 4,431,870 NYSE
TRV $43.77 -0.27 0.61% 4,980,714 NYSE
UTX $55.5 -0.02 0.04% 6,004,778 NYSE
VZ $29.53 +0.11 0.37% 11,650,861 NYSE
WMT $50.06 -0.55 1.09% 19,809,418 NYSE

Have a great day, that's all from Dan in Atlanta.