Indecision Grips Markets

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:43 pm EDT, Thursday September 3, 2009

After spending much of the day trading higher modestly, the major indexes made a final dip towards opening prices only to shoot higher in the final hour of trading. Indecision is gripping the market, and gold's rally to a 6 month high suggests that more investors are looking to protect profits made during six straight months of gains for the equity markets.

The Chinese Solar Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by ReneSola (NYSE: SOL - News) with a 9% gain.

Stocks trended higher late in the day after trading near breakeven most of the day, sending the Dow up 64 points to 9,345. The S&P climbed 8 points to 1,003, while the Nasdaq rose 16 points to 1,983. Oil dipped -9 cents to $67.96 a barrel, while gold jumped $19.20 to $997.70 an ounce.

Topping today's economic news, the Labor Department announced that weekly jobless claims fell to 570,000 last week from an upwardly revised 574,000 the prior week. Economists were expecting 560,000 claims.

On the earnings front, shoe retailer Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS - News) posted a profit of $18.7 million, or 29 cents per share, up from $8.1 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell -8% to $836.3 million, as same-store sales dropped -7.3%. The results fell short of analyst estimates for EPS of 33 cents on sales of $842.7 million. The stock rose 3.9%.

Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN - News) shares jumped 6.0% after the telecom equipment company reported a narrower fiscal Q3 loss than expected. For the quarter ended July 31st, the company lost -$26.5 million, or -29 cents per share, compared to a profit of $11.7 million, or 12 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS was a loss of -5 cents, better than the -13 cent loss Wall Street was anticipating. Revenue plunged -35% to $164.8 million. The company forecasted fiscal Q4 sales to be essentially flat with Q3. Six Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Shares of Teekay Corp (NYSE: TK - News) rose 2.1% after the tanker operator announced better-than-expected Q2 results. For the quarter, the company earned $159.4 million, or $2.19 a share, down from $183.4 million, or $2.50 a share, last year. Adjusted EPS was a loss of -30 cents. Revenue dropped -24% to $469.5 million. The Wall Street consensus was for a loss of -72 cents on sales of $463.9 million.

Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO - News) shares climbed 7.0% after the teen clothing retailer reported strong August same-store sales and raised its Q3 guidance. For the month, the company's comparable-store sales climbed 9%, besting analyst estimates of 7.1%. As a result, the company upped its Q3 EPS projections to 78-80 cents from 76-78 cents. The current Wall Street consensus is for EPS of 79 cents. Twelve Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Fun and informative, tickerspy.com is a free investing website where you can track multiple stock portfolios and compare against 250 proprietary Indexes tracking themes from nanotech to agriculture to precious metals. Best of all, tickerspy.com lets you spy on the portfolios of nearly 3,000 Wall Street institutions and hedge funds and see graphs of their performance. Try tickerspy.com today and find out how you stack up against investing legends like Warren Buffett!

Buzz up!