8/19/09 am Home Depot and HPQ Report Lower Earnings

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A read of Wednesday's 8/18/09 print editions of: Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Investors Business Daily, New York Times, Atl Journal Const, and USA Today yielded the following stories about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 component companies and the Dow with stories about the Dow aggregated first (some of the information about yesterday's closing Dow appeared in my blog yesterday afternoon) and then items about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 companies presented alphabetically, followed by symbol and Friday's closing price and related data:

Dow: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Tuesday at 9217.94 up 82.6 or 0.9% from Monday's close of 9135.34. Of the 30 Dow Companies: 6 gained and 24 declined with the biggest loser being Boeing BA $43.78 -0.38 0.86% 5,432,019 NYSE and the biggest gainer being Amex AXP $31.69 +1.30 4.28% 11,942,508 NYSE. The current divisor for the Dow found at today's page C4 of The Wall St. Jrnl is .132319125 unchanged.

Front page of WSJ "Reluctant Shoppers Hold Back Recovery" says major retailers reported that US consumers are holding back spending casting a cloud over the durability of the US recovery and underscoring the importance of overseas demand in restoring the world economy. Retailers across the spectrum provided foreboding reports. HD Home Depot Inc. saw total sales drop 9.1% in the quarter ending 8/2 and it reaffirmed expectations of a 9% sales drop this year. HD CEO Frank Blake said Tues that he didn't expect a year over year increase incerase n same store sales until the second half of 2010.

WSJ pC1 "Stocks Rise As Retailers Hold the Fort" says stocks clawed back some of their losses aon Tues. as investors welcomed a batch of retailers' earning that were less dire than some had feared. The Dow was helped by a 3.1% rise in HD which reported a smaller than expected decline in earnings. AXP and Alcoa each gained more than 4%. Some of the banks helped the dow increase such as BofAm BAC and JPM each up more than 2%.

WSJ pC5 "Large Stock Focus - Home Depot, Target Fuel Day's Turnaround" says a string of better than expected qaurterly reports from retailers, including HD and Target and an AXP led bounce back for financials helped stocks close higher. HD is charted under "The Good News" says HD's profit drop wasn't as bad as feared and the full year earnings outlook was raised.

NYT pB8 "Stocks & Bonds - Wall Street Joins Europe in a Rebound" says stock markets mounted a firm comeback on Tues after concerns about consumer spending sent shares tumbling at the start of the week. It mentions AXP pushing financials and better than expected earnings from HD and HPQ.

USA Today Cover story in Money section "Hope can fuel bulls' charge - Stocks rally despite continuing worries" says as all burned investors now know, an economy mired in a deep recession acts like a powerful depressant ont he stock market but there is an antidepressant with the power to fix this mood disored: an economy showing signs fo recovery It says the broad US stock market's quick and powerful 50% rally since hitting a 12 year low in early March is proof that this market phenomenon remains in vogue. At USA p4B "Big retailers help stocks bounce back" says the market rose Tues due to better than expected results from big retailers.

Tuesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing numerator was 1219.71 up 10.93 from Monday's closing Dow numerator of 1208.78. This is the sum of all 30 closing prices. A short cut to the Dow numerator is to multiply the closing Dow by the Divisor.

Now, if you divide the Dow numerator increase for Tuesday of 10.93 by the divisor you get 82.6, the increase in Tuesday's Dow close.

The average closing price (the closing numerator divided by 30) of Tuesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 40.66 up 0.37 from Monday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing price of 40.29. The median closing price of Tuesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 36.70 up 0.77 from Monday's Dow Jones median closing price of 35.93.

The highest closing price Tuesday again was IBM $117.63 +0.77 0.66% 4,266,162 NYSE and the lowest closing price Monday again was Alcoa AA $12.92 +0.51 4.11% 30,757,124 NYSE.

The lowest volume Tuesday was MMM $70.35 +0.27 0.39% 3,409,882 NYSE and the highest volume again was BAC BofAm $16.9 +0.34 2.05% 196,797,013 NYSE.

If Tuesday morning before the market opened you had purchased $100 of each of the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 shares (assuming you could buy fractional shares and assuming no transaction costs) and sold at the close you would have made $1,110
($121,980 - $120,870)

AT&T T $25.1 +0.08 0.32% 16,932,538 NYSE: WSJ pA15 "Why AT&T Killed Google Voice" is an editorial that earlie this month, Apple rejected an application for the iPhonecalled Google Voice that set off a chain of events - Google's cEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board and the FCC increased their investiation fo wrieless open access and handset exclusivity. With Google Voice, you have one Google phone number that calelrs use to reach you on whatever phone rings. It is a unified voice system something that a real phonecompany should have offered eyars ago. Apple ahs n exclusive deal with T in the US that leads the author, Andy Kessler, to speculate that T was the one behind Apple rejecting Google Voice because T clings to the old business of charging for voice calls in minutes. This is the most important part of opinion story: "What this episode really uncovers is that A&T is dying. At&T is dragging down the rest of us by overcharging us for voice calls and stifling innovation in a mobile data market critical to the US economy. For the latest quarter, AT&T reported local voice revenue down 12%, long distance down 15%"

AXP $31.69 +1.30 4.28% 11,942,508 NYSE: WSJ pC1 "Stocks Rise As Retailers Hold the Fort" says stocks clawed back some of their losses aon Tues. as investors welcomed a batch of retailers' earning that were less dire than some had feared. The Dow was helped by a 3.1% rise in HD which reported a smaller than expected decline in earnings. AXP and Alcoa each gained more than 4%. Some of the banks helped the dow increase such as BofAm BAC and JPM each up more than 2%.

Fin Times p20 says AXP was upgraded by KBW after credit losses iproved last month.

AA $12.92 +0.51 4.11% 30,757,124 NYSE: See above at AXP.

BAC $16.9 +0.34 2.05% 196,797,013 NYSE: See above at AXP.

BA $43.78 -0.38 0.86% 5,432,019 NYSE: No mentions found.

CAT $45.11 +1.16 2.64% 8,868,195 NYSE: No mentions found.

CVX $66.94 +0.35 0.53% 7,772,690 NYSE: No mentions found.

CSCO $21.01 +0.28 1.35% 32,905,274 NASDAQ-GS: No mentions found.

KO $48.61 +0.09 0.18% 7,712,050 NYSE: No mentions found.

DIS $25.2 +0.11 0.44% 9,643,269 NYSE: WSJ pB5 "Deaths at Disney World Prompt Investigations" says a third accidental death of a performer at Disney World in Orland since early July has prompted local and federal investigations. Also at p4 of AJC.

duPont DD $31.33 +0.27 0.87% 4,808,606 NYSE: WSJ pB4 "Monsanto, DuPont Escalate Patent Fray" says these 2 rivals are locked in a patent infringement suit in a St. Louis fed court involving DuPont's efforts to paint Monsanto as a monopolist is misleading the public. DuPont is attacking Monsanto's decade long dominance over genetically modified seeds and earlier this month a DOJ official said the Obama administration is examining competition issues throughout agriculture. In the suit, Monsanto claims DuPont illegally stacked a Monsanto gene with a DuPont gene to create a herbicide tolerant soybean plant.

Exxon Mobil XOM $66.49 -0.06 0.09% 21,236,202 NYSE: WSJ pB3 "Exxon obil Sets Gas Deal of $41 Billion With China" says PetroChina Co., signed a liquefied natural gas import deal with XOM valued at an estimated $41.1 bil over the next 20 eyars, the Australian gov said. The LNG supplied to PetroChina will come from XOM's 25% share of the huge Gorgon gas field offshore of Australia.

GE $13.59 +0.23 1.72% 59,980,923 NYSE: WSJ pB4 has a small item that says GE and Japan's Fanuc Ltd. ahve agreed to terminate their US joint venture by year end and will separately conduct their factory machine production businesses. They were making auomated manufacturing equipment and precision controllers in Virginia together since '86 as GE Fanuc Automation.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ $43.96 +0.85 1.97% 20,953,215 NYSE: Lead story on "Marketplace" WSJ pB1 "H-P's Profit Sapped by PC, Printer Declines says HPQ posted a 19% drop in quarterly profit as sales fell sharply in several of its key businesses, but HPQ said it was seeing a "stabilized market and suggested that tech spending has hit bottom. It produced earnings of $1.64 bil or 0.67 a share for the quarter ended 7/31 down from $2.03 bil or 0.80 a share a year ago. HPQ's quarterly revenue fell 2% to $27.45 bil from $28.03 bil a year earlier despite several billion dolalrs in revenue from EDS which HPQ bought last year. Also at AJC pA12 and USA p2B.

NTY pB1 "HP Tries to Keep The Ink Flowing" says in the last year HPQ's sales of printers and related supplies have tumbled due to weak global economy because there are less workers around the world hitting the print buttom.

Home Depot HD $26.93 +0.82 3.14% 35,073,432 NYSE: Front page of WSJ "Reluctant Shoppers Hold Back Recovery" says major retailers reported that US consumers are holding back spending casting a cloud over the durability of the US recovery and underscoring the importance of overseas demand in restoring the world economy. Retailers across the spectrum provided foreboding reports. HD Home Depot Inc. saw total sales drop 9.1% in the quarter ending 8/2 and it reaffirmed expectations of a 9% sales drop this year. HD CEO Frank Blake said Tues that he didn't expect a year over year increase incerase n same store sales until the second half of 2010.

WSJ pB1 "Home Depot, Lowe's Feel Impact As Homeowners Skip Pricey Projects" says D and Lowe's expect sales to sag well into next year as homeowners make do with cheaper paint and patch project noting HD posted a 7% drop in quarterly profit on a 9% drop in sales.

WSJ pC1 "Stocks Rise As Retailers Hold the Fort" says stocks clawed back some of their losses aon Tues. as investors welcomed a batch of retailers' earning that were less dire than some had feared. The Dow was helped by a 3.1% rise in HD which reported a smaller than expected decline in earnings. AXP and Alcoa each gained more than 4%. Some of the banks helped the dow increase such as BofAm BAC and JPM each up more than 2%.

WSJ pC5 "Large Stock Focus - Home Depot, Target Fuel Day's Turnaround" says a string of better than expected qaurterly reports from retailers, including HD and Target and an AXP led bounce back for financials helped stocks close higher. HD is charted under "The Good News" says HD's profit drop wasn't as bad as feared and the full year earnings outlook was raised.

Fin Times p13 "Cost and inventory cuts boost US retailers' results" says good weather helped HD sales and at p20 "Home depot raises outlook as buyers aretempted back" sounds imilar theme.

INTC $18.772 +0.322 1.75% 41,762,768 NASDAQ-GS: No mentions found.

IBM $117.63 +0.77 0.66% 4,266,162 NYSE: WSJ pB5 "Tech Journal - A Second Chance for Second Life - Northrop, IBM Use Virtual World as Setting fro Training, Employee Meetings" says Northrop has created training software called "Second Life" that is being used by many companies especially IBM who last year hosted an annual gathering of its leading thinker in Second Life.

JPM $41.7 +0.97 2.38% 28,670,389 NYSE: WSJ pC1 "Stocks Rise As Retailers Hold the Fort" says stocks clawed back some of their losses aon Tues. as investors welcomed a batch of retailers' earning that were less dire than some had feared. The Dow was helped by a 3.1% rise in HD which reported a smaller than expected decline in earnings. AXP and Alcoa each gained more than 4%. Some of the banks helped the dow increase such as BofAm BAC and JPM each up more than 2%.

WSJ pC10 in a small item says JPM will lend California $1.5 bil via an interim private placement so Cal can stop issuing IOUs to vendors on 9/4.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ $59.8 -0.02 0.03% 8,763,338 NYSE: AJC pA12 "FDA panel recommends approval for hip system" says FDA's outside panel of orthopedic experts voted tothat the Pinnacle Complete iplant system made by JNJ appears safe and effective and recommended that JNJ conduct a 10 year follow up saftey. The FDA usually always follows the panel's advice.

KFT $27.94 +0.15 0.54% 5,899,257 NYSE : No mentions found.

MCD $55.26 +0.76 1.39% 9,460,540 NYSE: WSJ pB5 "Hardee's, Carl's Hope to Steer Angus Eaters" says the burger wars are heating up with Hardee's and Carl's Jr. chains taking aim at McDonald's with a taste challenge and attack on Big Mac.

MRK $30.71 -0.17 0.55% 12,318,444 NYSE: WSJ pD2 "Additional Questions on Gardasil" says females who took Merck's Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine had higher rates of fainting and blood clots than other vaccines but the shot didn't apepar to raise the risk of hospitalization, permanent disability or death according a an AMA article that was critical of MRK's marketing of Gardasil including its funding of education campaigns by professional medical associations which didn't provide a balanced view of the vaccine.

MSFT $23.58 +0.46 1.99% 38,053,386 NASDAQ-GS: AJC pA12 "Microsoft asks for delay of ban on Word software: saying itis asking the US Ct. of Appeals for the Fedeal Circuit to allow it to keep selling Word as it fights an unfavorable patent ruling that said MSFT infringed on a patent held by a Canadian company, i4i last week.

USA Today p3B "Google tests new Chrome browser" and says MSFT has been trying for yers to be taken seriously in search but with a lpsided market share 65% for Google to less than 105 for MSFT it hasn't seen its share get out of single digits for years. MSFT recently announced a partnershp with Yahoo that will replace its search with Bing, alowing the fimrs to get a market share of about 25%.

PFE $15.98 +0.10 0.63% 36,263,141 NYSE: No mentions found.

PG $52.45 +0.24 0.46% 8,289,972 NYSE: No mentions found.

MMM $70.35 +0.27 0.39% 3,409,882 NYSE: No mentions found.

TRV $47.51 +0.90 1.93% 3,888,326 NYSE: No mentions found.

UTX $56.81 +0.68 1.21% 3,809,085 NYSE: No mentions found.

Verizon VZ $30.28 +0.06 0.2% 9,593,845 NYSE: WSJ pB1 in a story about turnaround guru Stephen Cooper who is trying to help MGM says that recently Cooper helped Carlyle Group to rescue Hawaiian Telcom, a landline phone business it had bought from VZ.

WMT $51.36 -0.21 0.41% 12,195,153 NYSE; "Target Profit Declines, Hurt by Credit Card Unit" WSJ pB4 says Target's 2Q profit fell 6.4% its eigth consecutive quarterly profit decline and says shoppers are eschewing Target's cheap chic offerings opting for back to basic items at WalMart.