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Business Title: U.S. Stocks Gain as Industrial Output, Earnings Top Forecasts (editors note: Romney Victory Speculation) Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a second day, as industrial production rose more than forecast and corporate earnings topped estimates.
Johnson & Johnson rallied 1.5 percent after raising its 2012 profit forecasts. Sprint Nextel Corp. gained 0.9 percent after people with direct knowledge of the situation said the company isn’t planning to take over Clearwire Corp. Citigroup Inc. added 0.2 percent after Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit stepped down.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent to 1,448.38 at 9:49 a.m. in New York. Stocks rallied yesterday as U.S. retail sales and Citigroup Inc.’s earnings beat estimates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 91.30 points, or 0.7 percent, to 13,515.53 today. Trading in S&P 500 companies was 31 percent above the 30-day average at this time of day.
“Investors are cycling back into risk as earnings as well as economic numbers in the U.S. are somewhat better than expected,” Chad Morganlander, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based fund manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees about $138 billion in client assets, said in a telephone interview. “Economic growth will continue to be sluggish even with the flickers of hope that we’ve seen this morning.”
More than 80 companies in the S&P 500 have scheduled their results this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of the 48 companies in the benchmark index that have reported since Oct. 9, 35 posted earnings that exceeded analyst estimates, the data showed. Intel Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. will release their earnings after the market closes.
Industrial Production
Output at factories, mines and utilities rose 0.4 percent in September after a 1.4 percent decline in August that was the biggest since March 2009, the Federal Reserve reported today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 85 economists called for production to rise 0.2 percent. Manufacturing, which makes up 75 percent of the total, climbed 0.2 percent.
European stocks advanced as two German lawmakers said the country is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line. Michael Meister and Norbert Barthle, officials within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc, indicated a rolling back of German resistance to a full sovereign bailout for Spain.
“We have more good news than bad and no reason to take the market down in the short term,” James Gaul, a portfolio manager at Boston Advisors LLC which oversees about $2.3 billion in assets, said in a phone interview. “The comments by German lawmakers that Germany may be open to a precautionary credit line to Spain may take some risk off the table there.”
Medical Tools
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest maker of health-care products, climbed 1.5 percent to $69.62. Third-quarter earnings beat analyst estimates on rising demand for medical tools acquired with the Synthes purchase and new prescription medicines.
The drugmaker raised its 2012 earnings forecast to $5.05 to $5.10 a share excluding certain items, after trimming the forecast last quarter by 5 cents to $5 to $5.07 a share. Analysts estimated the company would generate $5.08 a share this year.
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, added 0.9 percent to $5.74. The company, which agreed to sell a 70 percent stake to Softbank Corp. for $20.1 billion, has no immediate plans to take over Clearwire, said the people with knowledge of the situation. Clearwire tumbled 16 percent to $2.26.
Kroger Gains
Kroger Co., a supermarket operator, increased 1.9 percent to $23.87. Jefferies Group Inc. upgraded the stock to buy from hold.
Citigroup added 0.2 percent to $36.73. Pandit, who led the bank through its government rescue, stepped down and will be replaced as CEO by Michael Corbat. President and Chief Operating Officer John P. Havens also resigned, the bank said in a statement.
The departures remove a leadership team that navigated Citigroup through 2008’s global credit crisis, when taxpayers rescued the bank from collapse with a $45 billion bailout. Pandit has been challenged this year as Citigroup’s plan to boost payouts to investors was rejected by regulators and as shareholders voted against his compensation plan.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
I shit on your propaganda.
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