Wall Street Feeling Bullish Ahead Of Fed
Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
Though today's impending Fed policy statement has been causing investor mood swings over the past few weeks, that mood is decidedly positive as investors wait for the latest from Ben Bernanke and his fellow Fed policy makers. The major averages are coming off their highest closes of June, and a positive close today with give the Dow its first 3-day winning streak since the end of April.
That Fed policy statement, along with the FOMC's latest economic projections, will be out at 2 p.m. ET, followed by a Bernanke news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET. The Street will be looking for any clues as to when the central bank may scale back on its asset purchase program.
There are no government economic reports on the calendar today ahead of the Fed statement. The Energy Department will have its weekly assessment of oil and gasoline inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET, while the Mortgage Bankers Association will release its weekly look at mortgage applications at 7 a.m. ET.
FedEx (FDX) is the highest profile name on this morning's very light earnings calendar, while Red Hat (RHT), Micron Technology (MU), and Jabil Circuit (JBL) will be out with quarterly numbers after today's closing bell.
Adobe Systems (ADBE) leads our list of stocks to watch, reporting fiscal second quarter profit of $0.36 per share, excluding certain items, three cents above estimates. The software maker's current quarter projections, however, fall largely below consensus, as it continues to transition its customers to a subscription model. That transition is seen increasing long term revenue at the expense of short term sales.
Dish Network (DISH) will not raise its bid for Sprint Nextel (S), citing Sprint's decision to "prematurely terminate the due diligence process" and "accept extreme deal protections in its revised agreement with SoftBank". Dish will instead concentrate its efforts on trying to buy Clearwire (CLWR), which Sprint is also trying to accomplish.
La-Z-Boy (LZB) earned $0.30 per share for its fourth quarter, two cents above estimates, with revenues also exceeding consensus. The company best known for recliners did say that the current quarter is usually the company's, and the industry's, weakest.
Google (GOOG) is asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to release information about the number of requests it's received for customer information, as Microsoft (MSFT), Facebook (FB), and Apple (AAPL) have done.
DreamWorks (DWA) CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg expects the studio's new original content deal with Netflix (NFLX) to generate about $100 million in revenue this year, growing to about $200 million annually over time.
A Dell (DELL) special committee said it cannot endorse investor Carl Icahn's latest proposal, which calls for Dell to begin a $14 per share tender offer. The committee does not feel that Icahn's plan adequately addresses liquidity issues.
Boeing (BA) won an order for 30 of its new 737-MAX 8 jets from aircraft leasing company CIT Aerospace. The jet is a fuel-efficient aircraft designed for shorter trips.
Smithfield (SFD) chief executive officer Larry Pope could receive $46.6 million as part of the pork producer's deal to be bought by China's Shuanghui, according to an SEC filing.
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) CEO Michael Combes has unveiled a plan that cuts 1 billion euros per year in costs by 2015 and focuses on networking products and high speed broadband.
