Re: Allot downgrade
Tenacious
4/10/2012 10:16:20 PM
Obviously Alcoa is no tech stock, but it is the first Dow company to deliver results -- and those results were surprisingly good today. It announced a first-quarter profit, a trend investors can only hope will continue given the low expectations as the quarterly reporting period gets underway.
Alcoa earned $94 million during the first three months of the year. Revenues edged up slightly to $6 billion, despite a 9% percent drop in aluminum prices. Analysts were expecting Alcoa to post a second straight quarterly loss and declining sales.
So keep your fingers crossed. It could be better than expected.
Thanks Scott. It does feel a lot like spring of 2011; I just hope that does not mean a repeat of last summer's sharp pullback.
Although I just read a WSJ piece that said: "Expectations for earnings season have come in so drastically over the last few weeks that any upside surprise could give stocks a lift." Obviously they are seeing something different out there.
Nice Recap Rob. Feels a lot like spring of 2011 -- expectations are sky-high. Leaves a lot of room for disappointment and as we see the market is starting to discount that.
ThinkEquity agrees that Allot (ALLT) is pricey and just downgraded the stock to 'Hold' on valuation and a likely increase in competition.
@Noreen, I kind of view it as a mix between Twitter and Facebook. I post up my content, most of it is just public, and then I tend to get a fair amount of people intereact with it.
I also tend to find much more interesting things in my streams than what crops someone planted in farmville. To me, I find it more enjoyable than Facebook.
Re: Google
cat tail
4/10/2012 12:09:26 PM
Very funny @ Noreen. I, too, suffer from Google+ anxiety.
I know when to use Facebook and LinkedIn. I'm less certain about Google+. In addition, it makes me anxious. Are you a friend? An acquaintance? A co-worker? (Wait, we've attended parties together. Maybe you're a close friend. But I never told you about the time the guy who cut in line at the gas station made me cry because I was afraid you'd think I was crazy, especially after I threw a cupcake at his car. So no. Not a close friend. But what then? What circle do I put you in? And what if you put me in a better circle than I put you?)
Too complicated, too many circles. Too much soul searching about sharing a stupid story.
Scott,
I think Google+ really fills a void that Facebook is lacking in. I find that I get a great amount of interaction from other users on my content then I ever did on Facebook or Twitter. I also think that the platform is much more simple to use than Facebook, that might change over time as they add more features.
From what I've been reading, analysts are forecasting that companies in the S&P 500 will, on average, report a drop of around 0.1% in year-over-year earnings --ending a nine-quarter streak of rising earnings. And things would be even worse if not for Apple, which is expected to report fiscal Q2 earnings of $9.80 a share on April 24th, a 53% gain from the same period last year. And Apple often beats expectations. Anyway, without Apple earnings, analysts have forecast that earnings for S&P 500 companies will be down by about 1.6% for the quarter.
What should we blame the weak earnings on? High fuel costs? Just overall economic conditions? The ever popular "unseasonably warm winter?"
@Noreen,
That is an interesting stat. I think it probably it reflects uncertainty in the business community.
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