Stocks Swing Ahead of Earnings

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 4:54 pm EDT, Monday October 12, 2009

The Dow hit a new high for the year on its march to 10,000 before paring back some of its gains. Overall, it was a pretty quiet day, perhaps partly attributed to the Columbus Day holiday. Heavyweights Intel (Nasdaq: INTC - News) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ - News) report earnings tomorrow, kicking off the heart of earnings season. One positive sign heading into this period is that there have been very few negative pre-announcements. The key, as always, will be guidance, which we expect to be positive, but properly cautious.

The Oil Sands Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Oilsands Quest (AMEX: BQI - News) with a 13% gain.

Stocks ended mixed, as the Nasdaq closed just below breakeven at 2,139. The Dow rose 21 points to 9,886, while the S&P added 5 points to 1,076. Oil shot $1.50 higher to $73.27 a barrel, while gold climbed $8.90 to $1,057.50 an ounce.

In earning news, industrial and construction supplier Fastenal (Nasdaq: FAST - News) announced a $47.6 million, or 32 cents a share, Q3 profit, down from $72.9 million, or 49 cents a share, a year ago. That was a penny short of analyst estimates for EPS of 33 cents. Revenue fell -22% to $489.3 million, in line with estimates. The stock fell -2.4%. Twenty-two Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG - News), the world's largest light manufacturer, reported Q3 net income of 174 million euros ($256 million) versus 57 million euros last year. Analysts were expecting the company to post a loss of -45 million euros. Sales dropped -11% to 5.62 billion euros. The stock rose 7.6%.

Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK - News) shares jumped 7.6% after the power tool maker raised its Q3 EPS guidance. The company now expects to post EPS of about 91 cents, better than the 35-45 cents forecast it previously gave. The company said a lower tax rate will help by about 14 cents. Analysts were looking for EPS of 45 cents. The company said sales were better than expected, but still fell -23%. Three Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q3.

Build a Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW - News) was one of the day's top performers, up 18.6% after the stuffed animal retailer was upgraded by an analyst today. BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "market perform," saying he expects same-store sales to stabilize and then start to grow in 2010. He raised his target to $6 from $5.

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