Market Mixes as Investors Eye Consumer Confidence, Dollar

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:46 pm EDT, Tuesday October 27, 2009

Stocks ended mixed as the Dow squeaked out a gain, while the tech-laden Nasdaq was roughed up a bit. The consumer confidence number was a bit of an unpleasant surprise that stocks did not react well to, and earnings were generally not greeted warmly. With only three more days left for mutual funds to book tax losses this year, we would expect the rest of the week to continue to be a little topsy-turvey. While the January Effect gets a lot of press, investors may want to think about playing a November Effect by picking up some underperformers before the week is out.

The Oil Refiner Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Interoil Corp (NYSE: IOC - News) with a 9% gain.

Stocks ended mixed, with the Dow the sole gainer, up 14 points to 9,882. The S&P fell -4 points to 1,063, while the Nasdaq tumbled -1.2%, or -26 points, to 2,116. Oil ended up 87 cents to $79.55 a barrel, while gold slipped -$7.40 to $1,035.40 an ounce.

A drop in consumer confidence topped today's economic headlines, as the Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 47.7 in October. Economists were expecting a rise to 53.1. Elsewhere, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index rose 1% month over month in August to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.5. Prices were down -11.4% year over year.

In earnings news, U.S. Steel (NYSE: X - News) reported its third-straight quarterly loss. For the quarter, the steelmaker lost -$303 million, or -$2.11 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $919 million, or $7.79 per share. Sales plunged -61% to $2.82 billion. Analysts were looking for a loss of -$2.87 per share on revenue of $2.72 billion. For Q4, the company said that it expected to post a narrower loss. The stock fell -7.8%. Seventeen Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU - News) shares plunged -11.4% after the Chinese search engine cautioned that it will see a "temporary negative impact" on Q4 revenue as it switches to a new advertising platform. For Q3, the company's earnings jumped 42% to 492.9 million yuan ($72.2 million), or 14.14 yuan ($2.07) per share, from 347.9 million yuan, or 10 yuan per share, a year earlier. Revenue soared 39% to 1.3 billion yuan ($187.3 million). The company projected Q4 revenue of between $174-$180 million, while the Wall Street consensus was for sales of $205 million. Twenty-five Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Shares of clothing manufacturer VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC - News) fell -6.6% after the company's Q3 earnings missed analyst estimates by a penny. Third-quarter earnings fell -7% to $217.9 million, or $1.94 per share, from $233.9 million, or $2.10 per share, a year ago. Revenue fell -5% to $2.1 billion, in line with estimates. For the full year, the company raised the low end of its guidance, taking its EPS forecast to $4.85-$5.00 from a prior outlook of $4.70-$5.00.

Celanese Corp (NYSE: CE - News) saw its shares jump 8.6% after the specialty chemical company announced Q3 results that topped analyst views. For the quarter, the company earned $396 million, or $2.53 per share, up from $155 million, or 97 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS was 58 cents, 15 cents ahead of the 43-cent analyst consensus. Revenue tumbled -29% to $1.30 billion, which was just ahead of analyst estimates.

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