Stocks Dip on Cautious Consumer Sentiment

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:47 pm EDT, Tuesday September 29, 2009

Stocks got spooked by a weaker-than-expected consumer sentiment report, but didn't stray too far from breakeven. Tomorrow will wrap up one of the strongest quarters for stocks in about a decade (1998), so we wouldn't expect the market to stray much lower as investors look to help preserve the strong quarter. With the quarter coming to an end, earnings season will soon come into focus - and it could be a bumpy ride. Companies that perform above expectations will be rewarded, while those that disappoint are at risk to take a tumble, now that expectations have been raised a bit.

The Coffee Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Diedrich Coffee (Nasdaq: DDRX - News) with a 18% gain.

Stocks slipped on the day, with the Dow ending -47 points lower to 9,742. The S&P dipped -2 points to 1,061, while the Nasdaq fell -7 points to 2,124. Oil edged down -13 cents to $66.71 a barrel, while gold inched up 30 cents to $994.40 an ounce.

On the economic front, consumer confidence surprisingly fell in September, as the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 53.1 from 54.5 in August. Economists were expecting a reading of 57. Elsewhere, the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index revealed home prices rose 1.6% month over month in July. Economists were looking for a 0.5% increase.

In earnings news, shares of Walgreen (NYSE: WAG - News) climbed 9.2% after the drugstore operator's fiscal Q4 earnings topped analyst estimates. For the quarter ended August 31st, the company earned $436 million, or 44 cents per share, down from $443 million, or 45 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS came in at 47 cents, well ahead of the 39-cent consensus. Revenue climbed 8% to $15.7 billion, as same-store sales rose 2.4%. Over 125 Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Gannett (NYSE: GCI - News) shares surged 17.6% after the newspaper publisher said its Q3 earnings would top the Wall Street consensus. The company now expects to post adjusted EPS of between 39-42 cents on sales of $1.31-$1.32 billion. Analysts were anticipating EPS of 28 cents on revenue of $1.38 billion. The company also said it has reduced its debt from $3.51 billion to $3.31 billion. Six Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3. Reliance Steel (NYSE: RS - News) also came out and said its Q3 earnings would top consensus estimates. The steelmaker now expects to post EPS of between 40-45 cents. Wall Street was anticipating EPS of 28 cents. The company said demand remained weak, but that margins had improved. The stock rose 1.4%.

Shares of Big 5 Sporting Goods (Nasdaq: BGFV - News) jumped 3.5% after the sporting goods retailer said its Q3 earnings would come in at the top end of its prior guidance of 27-34 cents. The analyst consensus was for EPS of 31 cents. The company also said that same-store sales rose 1.6% in the quarter.

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