Airport Traffic down 8.1% in February in Paris following capacity reduction from airlines

• US markets took a breather after posting +10-13% in the past 3 sessions:
• DOW down 7 points (-0.1%) to 7,217 (-17.8% YTD)
• S&P 500 down 3 points (-0.4%) to 754 (-16.5% YTD)
• NASDAQ down 27 points (-1.9%)  to 1,404 (-11.0% YTD)
• S&P 500 were evenly split with gaining and losing sectors:
• Laggards:
• Financials (-1.9%): Citigroup (+30.9%), Bank of America (+7.3%), Morgan Stanley (-9.4%), JPMorgan Chase (-2.8%), Goldman Sachs (-5.0%)
• Consumer Discretionary (-1.8%): Comcast – A (-3.5%), Hoe Depot (-2.8%), Target (-3.8%), McDonald’s (-1.3%)
• Info. Technology (-1.7%): Microsoft (-2.4%), Oracle (-4.2%), Intel (-3.1%), Qualcomm (-2.5%)
• Out-performers:
• Utilities (+2.6%): Southern (+3.8%), Exelon (+1.6%), FPL Group (+3.2%)
• Industrials (+1.4%): UPS (+3.8%), Lockheed Martin (+5.6%), Union Pacific (+4.7%), FedEx (+5.7%)
• Materials (+1.3%): Monsanto (+4.6%), Du Pont (+4.0%)
  
  
• Policies:
• President Obama and US Treasury Secretary Geithner outlined plan to help small business:
• Raising loan guarantees; waiving fees:
• Small Business Administration (SBA) will step up lending guarantees (from 85% of a loan up to USD150K; 75% of loan of >USD150K) to 90%, reducing lender risk as an incentive to make loans.
• Fees of as much as 3.75% of the loan’s face value will be waived effective today.
• Spending USD15b to bolster the secondary market:
• The Treasury Dept. has also been ordered to begin using as much as USD15b from the USD700b bank rescue fund to purchase SBA loans on the secondary market, freeing up bank liquidity to make more loans.
• New reporting requirements on lending:
• The 21 largest banks getting government bailout money must provide monthly reports on how much they are lending to small businesses, and all other banks must make quarterly reports on such lending, under the plan.
  
  
• Others:
• Aloca, the largest US aluminum maker, plans to sell stock and convertible notes, slash its dividends and cut costs to conserve cash, as the company braces for its second straight quarterly loss.
• American Express reported higher delinquency rates, with 5.3% of its credit card loans being at least 30 days late at the end of Feb, up from 4.7% in Dec and 5.1% in Jan.
  
  
• Economic data:
• Feb industrial production fell -1.4%, vs. est. of -1.3%.
• Feb capacity utilization of 70.9%, vs. est. of 71.0%.
• 17 Mar (Tue): Feb PPI & core PPI (MOM and YOY), housing starts, building permits
• 18 Mar (Wed): Feb CPI & core CPI (MOM and YOY), current account balance
• 19 Mar (Thu): FOMC rate decision, weekly jobless (initial and continuing) claims, leading indicator
  
  
• Light earnings schedule this week, mostly in the consumer and IT space:
• 17 Mar (Tue): Darden Restaurants, Factset Research System, Guess, Adobe
• 18 Mar (Wed): General Mills, FedEx, Oracle
• 19 Mar (Thu): Nike, Discover Financial Services, Palm

 

 

• Airport de Paris says traffic down 8.1% in February following capacity reduction from airlines.
• Zodiac issues a profit warning. The company forecasts 2008/2009 operating profit of EUR 306m versus consensus of EUR 350m.
• Lindt & Sprüngli reports results at the top end of expectations, but 2009 seen as a transitory year with sales guidance of 2 to 6%.
• Arcelor Mittal will launch a rights issue one for two at EUR 8 according to FT.
• Carrefour is hiring Mr Bouchut as new CFO. He was CFO and CEO at Casino for 15 years and did a very good job.
• Galenica reports earnings way above expectations mainly due to the pharma division and gives double digit guidance for 2009.
• Telefonica and Vodafone could be considering to partly integrating their networks in several countries in order to reduce investments in infrastructures.
• Standard Chartered said the bank had a strong first two months of the year, joining Barclays and Citigroup in reassuring investors that industry is recovering.
• Aviva Plc may suspend lending shares to HF and has discussed with other European insurers a proposal to end the practice.

 

 

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