Morning Journal--The US will need a miracle to get back to normal

 News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

 

Target (TGT) announces an agreement to sell its $5.9B credit card portfolio to TD Bank (TD). Target expects to use the proceeds from the sale to repay debt and buy back shares. Additionally, TD will take over all Target Credit Card and Target Visa operations for 7 years.

Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL): Q3 EPS of $0.94 in-line. Revenue of $639M (+2% Y/Y) misses by $18M. Shares -4.1% premarket.

Illinois Tool Works (ITW): Q3 EPS of $1.09 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $4.5B (-1.7% Y/Y) misses by $80M.

Paychex (PAYX) declares $0.33/share quarterly dividend, 3.1% increase from prior dividend of $0.32. Forward yield 4.06%. For shareholders of record Nov 02. Payable Nov 15. Ex-div date Oct 31.

Donaldson Company (DCI) guides FY13 estimates lower across the board. It now sees FY13 Q1 EPS to be around $0.30 - $0.36 per share, with full year sales between $2.52B - $2.62B, and full year EPS in a range of $1.68 - $1.88. Current consensus estimates are for FY 2013 revenue of $2.8B, a full year EPS of $1.97, and Q1 EPS at $0.45. Shares -3.6%

C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW): Q3 EPS of $0.72 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $2.88B (+6.9% Y/Y) misses by $80M.

Altera (ALTR): Q3 EPS of $0.49 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $495M (+6% Y/Y) beats by $12M. Shares -1.3% AH.

C.R. Bard (BCR): Q3 EPS of $1.64 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $722.9M (+1% Y/Y) misses by $12M.

Total System Services (TSS): Q3 EPS of $0.32 in-line. Revenue of $468.1M (+1.8% Y/Y) in-line.

AT&T (T): Q3 EPS of $0.62 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $31.5B misses by $120M.

Kimberly-Clark (KMB): Q3 EPS of $1.30 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $5.2B (-3% Y/Y) misses by $140M.

Boeing (BA): Q3 EPS of $1.35 beats by $0.23. Revenue of $20B (+13% Y/Y) in-line. Shares +3% premarket.

General Dynamics (GD): Q3 EPS of $1.70 misses by $0.08. Revenue of $7.93B (+1% Y/Y) misses by $110M.

Praxair (PX): Q3 EPS of $1.39 in-line. Revenue of $2.77B (-4% Y/Y) misses by $70M.

T. Rowe Price Group (TROW): Q3 EPS of $0.94 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $769.7M (+13% Y/Y) beats by $4M.

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            The International Council of Shopping Centers reported weekly sales of major retailers down 0.7% versus the prior week but up 2.9% versus the comparable period a year ago; Redbook Research reported month to date retail chain store sales up 1.3% on a year over year basis.

            The Richmond Fed’s October manufacturing index fell to -7 versus expectations of +6.

            http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/commentaries/Richmond-Fed-Manufacturing.php

            Weekly mortgage applications declined 12% while purchase applications decreased 8%.

            http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/10/mbamortgage-applications-decrease-in.html

   Other

            The great shale based energy revolution (medium):

            http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/the-great-us-shale-based-energy-revolution-has-revitalized-the-american-economy-since-2008-and-its-just-getting-started/

            The US economy will need a miracle to get back to normal (medium):

            http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-economy-will-need-a-miracle-to-get-back-to-normal-2012-10

            A solution to ‘too big to fail’ (medium):

            http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/10/forcing-frequent-failures/#more-84915

Politics

  Domestic

The latest on Corzine (medium):

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-23/corzine-tells-judge-he-purchased-50000-shares-mf-global-stock-bankruptcy-he-must-acq

  International War Against Radical Islam

            How Iran evades the blockade (medium/long):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-23/how-iran-evades-western-blocakde-turkey-dubai-iran-petrogold-triangle

            Japan leads the way to economic demise (medium):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-23/mushroom-cloudy-future-2016-japan-net-debt-capita-will-be-140000