Nine Days, Eight Wins for the Bulls

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:54 pm EDT, Wednesday September 16, 2009

Stocks just continue to roll along with the bulls fully in control, once again brushing aside early morning weakness to drift higher throughout the day. As we noted yesterday, while we remain a bit cautious, you just can't fight this tape. Too many people seem to have been expecting a pullback, and when that happens, you just usually don't get one.

The Broadcast TV Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Gray Television (NYSE: GTN - News) with a 28% gain.

Stocks continued their winning ways, with the Dow up 108 points to 9,792. The S&P climbed 16 points to 1,069, while the Nasdaq jumped 31 points to 2,133. Oil rose $1.58 to $72.51 a barrel, while gold added $13.90 to $1,020.20 an ounce.

In economic news, the Labor Department reported that the consumer price index rose 0.4% in August versus the 0.3% increase expected by economists. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.1%, in line with expectations. Elsewhere, the Federal Reserve said industrial production rose 0.8% last month, better than the 0.6% increase economists were anticipating.

On the earnings front, software firm Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE - News) announced fiscal Q3 earnings of $136.0 million, or 26 cents a share, down -29% from $191.6 million, or 35 cents a share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS came in at 35 cents, a penny ahead of analyst estimates. Revenue fell -21% to $697.5 million. The company guided for adjusted fiscal Q4 EPS of between 33-39 cents versus the Wall Street consensus of 37 cents. Adobe also announced it was buying Web analytics firm Omniture (Nasdaq: OMTR - News) for $1.8 billion, or $21.50 a share, in cash. Shares of Omniture rose 26.3%, while Adobe shares fell -6.4%. Seven Pro investors counted Omniture among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Recent spin-off Seahawk Drilling (Nasdaq: HAWK - News) reported a Q2 loss from continuing operations of -$8.8 million versus a profit of $60 million a year ago. Revenue plunged -56% to $76.5 million. Seahawk was a part of Pride International (NYSE: PDE - News) during both the current year and previous year quarters, and was spun-off in August. The stock jumped 11.6%.

Shares of Littelfuse (Nasdaq: LFUS - News) climbed 15.1% after the maker of circuit protection products upped its Q3 guidance. The company now expects to post adjusted EPS between 27-32 cents versus an earlier forecast of 14-21 cents. Sales are expected to come in between $113-$116 million. The Wall Street consensus was for EPS of 18 cents on sales of $106.5 million.

AGCO (NYSE: AGCO - News) shares tumbled -9.6% after the agricultural equipment maker cut its full-year guidance due to weak European demand. The company now expects to post adjusted EPS of between $1.30-$1.50, down from an already lowered forecast of $2.00-$2.25. Analysts were expecting EPS of $2.06. Third-quarter revenue, meanwhile, is expected to be down -30 to -35%, with net income at or below breakeven. Five Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

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