Hopefuly it is not to late to wake up the dead.
.
Posted on 04/11/2008 3:05:35 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. stocks hard hit by GE's disappointing results
Nasdaq fronts weekly decline, off 3.4%; Dow, S&P slump more than 2%
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:37 p.m. EDT April 11, 2008Print E-mail RSS Disable Live Quotes
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Friday sunk to April lows and weekly losses, with the market undone by General Electric Co.'s earnings miss, jolting investors and casting a bleak light on a slew of earnings reports next week.
"GE never surprises us, and they had the whole month of March to let us know. All they had to say is, for the love of God, business is actually slow!" said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) shed 256.56 points, or 2%, to end at 12,325.42, pulling the blue chips down 2.2% on the week.
Of the Dow's 30 components, all but one ended in the red. The decline was fronted by General Electric (GE) , with its shares suffering their worst one-day percentage drop since October 1987, losing 12.8% to end at $32.05.
The industry bellwether reported a 6% decline in first-quarter net profit, largely over trouble in its financial-services businesses. Read full story.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Wall Street braces for grim bank results
By Riley McDermid, MarketWatch
Last update: 1:36 p.m. EDT April 11, 2008
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Wall Street is gearing up for another round of grim financial news, this time in the form of first-quarter financial results that many banks are scheduled to report next week.
Several of the country's largest banks are on deck to issue their quarterly numbers, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPMJPMorgan Chase & Co ) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFCWells Fargo & Company ) on Wednesday, followed by Merrill Lynch & Co. (MERMerrill Lynch & Co., Inc ) on Thursday and Citigroup (CCitigroup, Inc) on Friday.
Some of the banks recently making headlines, as possible acquisition targets or for receiving enormous cash infusions, will be reporting as well, including Washington Mutual (WMWashington Mutual Inc ) on Tuesday and Wachovia Corp. (WBWachovia Corp ) on Friday.
Moreover, results from U.S. Bancorp (USBus bancorp del com new ) , Sovereign Bancorp (SOVSovereign Bancorp Inc ) , First Horizon National Corp. (FHNfirst horizon natl corp com ) , Capital One Financial (COFCapital One Financial Corporation ) and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BKbank of new york mellon corp com ) are on the weekly agenda.
Analysts have consistently warned that the biggest write-downs for banks in the first quarter will likely be from securities backed by mortgages and other consumer loans.
Goldman Sachs has estimated bank losses in the range of $12 billion in write-downs for Citigroup this past quarter and $2 billion for Merrill Lynch -- but virtually none for J.P. Morgan. That same report pegged Merrill as generating a loss of $2.45 a share, revised from a previously estimated profit of 25 cents, and estimated Citigroup's quarterly loss as widening to $1.55 a share
Ping!
Note: Nasdaq’s final result is -2.61%
It’s pretty amazing that G.E. didn’t warn the market that this quarter’s numbers were going to be light. Immeldt screwed up.
I doubt that would ever happen, it still brings a lot of money into the company.
The two weeks or so before quarterly earnings begin to be reported are known as the warning period. G.E. said nothing. Bad form.
‘Shocking’ GE results show size of crisis
By Francesco Guerrera and Justin Baer in New York
Published: April 11 2008 12:57 | Last updated: April 11 2008 19:04
General Electric underlined the depth of the global financial crisis on Friday, announcing its worst quarter in five years and slashing full-year forecasts.
The news, described as “shocking” by a senior GE executive, combined with data showing that US consumer confidence was at a 26-year low to send shares lower. The S&P 500 fell 2 per cent in New York to 1,332.83.
Shares in GE, which derives more than half its revenues overseas and is seen as a bellwether of the global economy, led the way, falling 12.8 per cent – its biggest loss since the 1987 stock market crash.
The results are a blow to Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive, and could increase pressure for action at the group’s underperforming financial and healthcare divisions.
GE executives apologised for reporting the first fall in quarterly profits since 2003, but said their strategy was sound.
“The miss is shocking relative to our performance,” Keith Sherin, chief financial officer, told the Financial Times. “[But] we are not going to change our strategy because of a one-time miss.”
Mr Immelt presented an upbeat outlook less than a month ago, saying on a webcast that GE would increase earnings at least 10 per cent this year. GE said on Friday its profits would grow no more than 5 per cent in 2008.
Fielding hostile questions from analysts, Mr Immelt said the collapse of Bear Stearns days after the webcast and subsequent market turmoil prevented GE selling real estate. The group was also forced to take a $270m writedown on stocks, loans and securitised assets.
Mr Immelt, who succeeded Jack Welch nearly seven years ago, told analysts: “I understand your frustration...but I think we’ve got to look at the totality of the company. We earn a lot more money than we did five or six years ago. We generate a lot more cash. We bought back a lot of stock. And I think the franchise of the company is very strong.”
GE’s writedowns are small compared with those at other financial companies. But analysts said continued weakness in GE’s healthcare division and poor results in the industrial and appliances units showed that it was losing ground across its portfolio.
First quarter profit from continuing operations slipped to $4.36bn, or 44 cents a share, from $4.93bn, or 48 cents, a year ago and below the 51 cents expected by analysts.
“There is no getting away from it. This was a disappointing set of earnings from GE with weakness across the board,” said Nigel Coe, Deutsche Bank analyst.
GE owns NBC, too, doesn’t it? Wonder how those losses are figuring in...
As bad as today was my small/micro cap stock gained 5% today. Woo hoo!
Probably just taking orders so as not to spook the economy.
I am not a financial person, far from it, but it seems to me some of those who are tend to spend a bit too much time looking at the markets. It’s like a doctor checking a sick person’s pulse every 1/2 second and declaring the patient dead 60 times a minute!
From the permatouts around here I would never have guessed that the downturns in mortgage markets caused by people not paying back their loans was because folks didn't have the money to pay back their loans and as a consequence might be buying less stuff.
Really, who knew? Go figure.
A mere flesh wound
Hopefuly it is not to late to wake up the dead.
.
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