Indecision Swings Market to Negative Close

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:52 pm EDT, Thursday September 17, 2009

Stocks were in a tug-of-war match all session before ending the day slightly in the red. While we remain cautious, it still appears that the bulls are in charge. With the Dow in shouting distance of 10,000, it looks like there is a good chance we'll eventually see the storied index hit that number once again this year. The question is whether it will be a continued march up to this psychologically important number, or will there be a bit of a pullback before a late-year charge.

The Coffee Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Diedrich Coffee (Nasdaq: DDRX - News) with a 15% gain.

Stocks dipped on the day, with the Dow finishing -8 points lower to 9,784. The S&P edged down -3 points to 1,065, while the Nasdaq closed down -6 points to 2,127. Oil slipped -4 cents to $72.47 a barrel, while gold dipped -$6.70 to $1,013.50 an ounce. On the economic front, weekly jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 545,000 from an upwardly revised 557,000 the prior week. Economists were expecting jobless claims to rise for the week. Elsewhere, the Commerce Department announced that new construction rose 1.5% to an annual rate of 598,000 units in August.

In earnings news, software firm Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL - News) reported a fiscal Q1 profit of $1.12 billion, or 22 cents per share, up 4% from $1.08 billion, or 21 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS came in at 30 cents. Revenue dropped -5% to $5.05 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of 30 cents on sales of $5.25 billion. The company guided for fiscal Q2 EPS of 35-36 cents on revenue of $5.60-$5.77 billion, versus estimates of EPS of 36 cents on sales of $5.72 billion. The stock fell -2.8%. Nearly 250 Pro investors counted Oracle among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Package delivery firm FedEx (NYSE: FDX - News) reported a fiscal Q1 profit of $181 million, or 58 cents per share, down -49% from $384 million, or $1.23 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell -20% to $8 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of 58 cents on revenue of $8.24 billion. The company reiterated its recently announced forecast for Q2 EPS of between 65-90 cents. The stock fell -2.2%. Fourteen Pro investors counted FedEx among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Credit card lender Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS - News) saw its fiscal Q3 profits more than triple to $559.4 million, or $1.07 per share, up from $180.1 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier. The results were boosted by a $287 million after-tax gain from antitrust settlements with Visa (NYSE: V - News) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA - News). Adjusted EPS was 52 cents, well ahead of the -12 cent loss analysts expected. The charge-off rate rose to 8.39% from 4.49% in Q2. The stock rose 1.3%.

CKE Restaurants (NYSE: CKR - News), the owner of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, announced net income of $12.25 million, or 22 cents per share, down -1% from $12.34 million, or 23 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue dipped -5% to $336 million, as same-store sales dropped -4.6%. Analysts were looking for EPS of 22 cents on sales of $341 million. The stock fell -1.1%.

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