Buffett's Bet Doesn't Move Market

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 3:59 pm EST, Tuesday November 3, 2009

Warren Buffett stunned Wall Street today by announcing that his firm Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News, BRK-B - News) would buy the railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI - News) in what he called an "all-in" bet on the U.S. economy. The move wasn't enough to spur big market gains today as the major averages drifted throughout the session and closed mixed.

The Coffee Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Diedrich Coffee (Nasdaq: DDRX - News) with a 27% gain.

After a choppy day of trading, stocks ended mixed. The Nasdaq climbed 0.4%, or 8 points, to reach 2,057, while the S&P inched up 0.2%, or 3 points, to 1,045. The Dow was the lone loser, down -0.2%, or -18 points, to 9,772. Oil rose $1.47 to $79.60 a barrel, while gold jumped $31.20 to close at $1,085 an ounce.

On the economic front, the Commerce Department announced that factory orders grew 0.9% in September, the fifth increase in the last six months and slightly better than the 0.8% gain expected by economists.

Turning to earnings, shares of Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM - News) rose 4.6% after the company topped Q1 estimates by 21 cents. For the first quarter, ADM earned $496 million, or 77 cents a share, down -53% from $1.04 billion, or $1.62 a share, a year ago. The results easily beat the 56-cent consensus. Revenue dropped -29% to $14.92 billion. 28 Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3. Media conglomerate Viacom (NYSE: VIA - News) said its profit climbed 15% during Q3 due to profitable films such as G.I. Joe and the Transformers. The stock rose 1.3%. For the period ended September 30th, Viacom posted a profit of $463 million, or 76 cents per share, compared with $401 million, or 65 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS was 69 cents, which came in ahead of analyst estimates of 57 cents. Sales dipped -3% to $3.3 billion. The company said it was cautious about the rest of 2009 because of volatile ad prices and uncertainty about whether or not all ad slots would be filled.

Shares of Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC - News) moved up 3.2% after the company's Q3 earnings more than tripled from last year. For the three months ended September 30th, the cable TV operator earned $98.9 million, or 33 cents per share, up from $30.9 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago. Wall Street had predicted EPS of 26 cents. Revenue rose 5% to $1.84 billion. Cablevision said it plans to spin off its Madison Square Garden operations by the end of 2009. Over 20 Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3. Oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC - News) noted a drop in its Q3 profit, but reminded investors that this was in comparison to an extremely lucrative period for the industry a year ago. The stock gained 2.3%. For the third quarter, Anadarko earned $200 million, or 40 cents per share, which included $251 million in special items. Ex-items, the company reported a loss of -$51 million, or -11 cents per share, versus a profit of $2.16 billion, or $4.62 per share, last year. The consensus was for a -33 cent loss. Revenue dove to $2.7 billion from $6.15 billion. Looking forward, the company expects sales volume of about 220 million BOE, up from a previous outlook of 210 million BOE.

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