Have We Reached an Inflection Point?

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:38 pm EDT, Wednesday September 23, 2009

Stocks looked poised for another positive day, and initially got a boost after the Fed decision, but the market lost its steam late in the day. It will be interesting to see if this is an inflection point where the market finally sees the pullback many had been anticipating. We prefer to remain cautious on the buying front, but will be ready to pounce if the market does indeed take a moderate dip.

The Chinese Online Gaming Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Perfect World Co (Nasdaq: PWRD - News) with a 8% gain.

Stocks reversed course late in the day to end lower, with the Dow off -81 points to 9,749. The Nasdaq fell -15 points to 2,131, while the S&P lost -11 points to 1,061. Oil slipped -$2.79 a barrel, while gold dipped -$1.10 o $1,014.40 an ounce.

On the economic front, the Fed, as anticipated, kept the Fed funds target rate unchanged. It gave one of its most upbeat statements in quite awhile, but said it planned to keep interest rates low for an extended period and that inflation looked stable. The central bank also said it would extend its purchase of $1.45 trillion in mortgage-backed securities out to Q1 2010 from an original goal of competing the program by year-end.

In earnings news, shares of General Mills (NYSE: GIS - News) rose 4.6% after the cereal maker announced quarterly profits well ahead of analyst expectations. For fiscal Q1, the company earned $420.6 million, or $1.25 a share, up 51% from $278.5 million, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS was $1.28, well ahead of the $1.03 consensus. Revenue inched up less than 1% to $3.52 billion, hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar. Looking ahead, the company upped its full-year adjusted guidance to EPS of $4.40-$4.45 from a prior forecast of $4.20-$4.25. Analysts were looking for EPS of $4.27. Forty-five Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

AutoZone (NYSE: AZO - News) shares slipped -7.5% after the auto parts retailer's earnings missed analyst views. For fiscal Q4, the company posted a profit of $236.1 million, or $4.33 per share, down -3% from $243.7 million, or $3.88 per share, a year ago. The consensus was for EPS of $4.45. Sales edged up 1% to $2.23 billion, in line with estimates, while domestic same-store sales rose 5.4%.

Shares of Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX - News) climbed 4.9% after the chipmaker raised its fiscal Q2 guidance for the quarter ending in September. The company now expects sales to rise 10% sequentially, up from a previous forecast for 2-6% growth. Gross margin guidance of 61% remained unchanged. "The increased sales guidance is primarily due to broad based strength across nearly all end markets and geographies," the company said in a press release. Five Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

H.B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL - News) shares got a 0.5% boost after the adhesive and specialty chemical maker's Q3 results topped estimates. For the quarter ended August 29th, the company earned $35.4 million, or 72 cents per share, up 63% from $21.7 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS came in at 48 cents, easily outstripping the analyst consensus of 36 cents. Revenue fell -13% to $315.3 million.

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