“Earnings were terrible, but look great on my MI6-issued iPad mini”
Dow: 13,103, -243 (-1.82%) S&P 500: 1,413, -21 (-1.44%)
Big Bird, Binders, and Bayonets. Last night el Prezidente finished off the “killer B’s” with an aggressively hashtagged lecture to Mitt Romney on antiquated American military weaponry. Today, CEO Tim Cook & his Apple cronies took a spin behind a podium of their own to educate consumers on a more modern technology – a 1st glimpse of the iPad Mini, a new MacBook, and a 4th, pint-sized regular iPad. Despite all the iCandy out in Cali this morning, blow after blow of bad earnings reports & outlooks smacked investor confidence. With yesterday’s gloomy outlook from Caterpillar, today’s slew of news validated concerns over slowing growth and knocked the Dow down 243 points…the 2nd 200-point drop in 3 days.
DuPont and 3M miss earnings forecasts and cut outlook
Over the last few days, 3rd quarter earnings haven’t impressed and today’s reports followed the trend like a bad Project Runway contestant. First, 3M (MMM) lost over 4% today after revenues last quarter missed analysts’ forecasts and it lowered its earnings outlook for a full-year on slowing growth in Europe & Asia (we assume that people in both regions love post-its). E I DuPont Nemours (DD), the biggest US chemical maker, plans to cut 1,500 jobs, suffered smaller profits than projected and, like 3M, dropped its annual earnings outlook. The result? Its biggest 1-day loss in 4 years – a 9% plummet that was actually one of the biggest losses of any Dow Jones Industrial Average component this year. The Dow stock market index is made up of large, blue chip quality stocks, large companies whose size (measured through market capitalization) can (as we saw today) can have a huge impact on the overall market.
iPad Mini revealed to compete in smaller tablet market
A new mini iPad? Jigga what?!?! Apple (AAPL) released a fresh smaller ‘purse-friendly’ iPad to compete with similar tablets from Microsoft, Amazon and Google (we at MarketSnacks still rock neon green iPod minis on our belt clips). The smaller iPad is similar to the previous iPad in all respects except size and processing power – what did surprise audience members at the event was also the release of a new regular sized iPad: This 4th generation iPad boasts LTE (or 4G) capabilities and the same A6X chip as the iPhone. New designs for the MacBook Pro and iMac arrived as well, but shares dropped over 3% today as investors are starting to worry about the ‘catch-up’ game Apple has been playing recently. Since the passing of Steve Jobs, products released have been responses to competitors rather than new ideas or revolutionary redesigns of current ones…Investors are wondering if the end of Jobs’ idea pipeline is in sights and product competition could burst their iBubble.
Tomorrow:
- Two silicon valley tech firms released earnings after hours…Netflix (NFLX) earnings dropped 89% and their stock’s getting pummeled after hours. Facebook (FB) posted a quarterly loss, but signs of hope in mobile advertising lifted the stock from embarrassing post-IPO lows…more tomorrow
- The earnings train rolls on: AT&T, Boeing, NASDAQ…
- September New Home Sales and Home Prices
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