| Rally Boosts Shipping Firms Andy Wang submits: We had a big day for shipping firms today in the stock market, with SEA (Claymore-Delta Global Shipping ETF) moving up over 3%, and some shipping companies posting gigantic advances: EGLE up 16%, OCNF up 15%, GNK up 15%. So what is the real reason for the sudden optimism in this beaten-down, depressed and desolate market sector?Most traders will probably point to the Baltic Dry Index (.BDI), which has been up about 10 days in a row, as the cause. Now it is over 3700. The market considers 4000 to be a portent of the recovery of shipping rates, leading to bigger profits. The yearly high is only a bit more, near 4200. This means that rates for new contracts have almost doubled in the past couple of months. The BDI explains a lot, especially the rate at which speculator money flows into the dry bulk names, but it is as much a symptom here as the stock prices are.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Rail Data Improves The Pragmatic Capitalist submits: Rail traffic was mixed this week as the Chinese New Year skewed some of the data according to the AAR. Carloads fell 1.6% year over year and were down 15.3% versus 2008. Intermodal traffic jumped 19% , but was down 11.1% versus 2008. The year over year data was skewed by a sharp jump in container volume due to the week of the Chinese New Year. As a result container volume rose 25% year over year. The breadth of the data was slightly improved over last week. The AAR reports:Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Fords Beats Estimates, Posts Strong Profit Zacks.com submits: Ford Motor Co. (F) has revealed a profit of $1.76 billion or 46 cents per share (before special items including sales of Volvo cars) in the first quarter of 2010, outperforming the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 31 cents per share. The profit showed a $3.55 billion improvement from a loss of $1.79 billion or 75 cents per share (before special items including sales of Volvo cars) in the first quarter of 2009. Sales in the quarter escalated 15% to $28.1 billion. Excluding sales of Volvo cars in 2009, sales increased more than 30%. The improvement in results was attributable to strong sales of new products, betterment in global Automotive operations and higher profits at Ford Credit.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
LKQ Corp. Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript LKQ Corp (LKQX)Q2 2010 Earnings CallJuly 29, 2010 10:00 pm ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
What's Behind Put Activity in Delta optionMONSTER submits: By Chris McKhann Shares of Delta Airlines (DAL) continue to take off after a positive response to earnings, and while the unusual option activity is in the puts, it isn't necessarily bearish. Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |