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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Shacknow - TODAYS PRIMER , March 6, 2012

Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk

Though one could hardly call the losses of the past two sessions significant, there are signs that Wall Street’s rally is losing some steam.

The S&P 500’s two-day loss of 0.7% is its worst two-day performance since January 26-27, and the Nasdaq’s 1.3% drop over two sessions represents its worst back-to-back performance since December 14-15.

Though there’s plenty of economic data still ahead this week, including the ADP and government employment reports, none of those numbers are out today.

The earnings calendar is also light today, though we will see the latest numbers from some companies of note, including Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) this morning and recent IPO Pandora (P) after the closing bell.

Applied Materials (AMAT) is a stock to watch today, as the maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment increases its quarterly dividend by 13% to $0.09/share, and announces a $3 billion stock buyback.

We’ll watch shares of American Airlines parent AMR (AAMRQ), after the airline announced that February passenger traffic rose 6% in February compared to a year earlier.

Skullcandy (SKUL) Chief Financial Officer Mitch Edwards is resigning to pursue other interests, though he’ll stay on the job until April 1. The news sent the shares tumbling about 8% in after-hours trading.

Monster Worldwide (MWW), whose shares had jumped last week after its CEO said the online jobs site operator was exploring alternatives, got another boost after-hours after it announced it had hired advisers to review those alternatives.

Madison Square Garden (MSG) has announced it’s raising season ticket prices: 4.9% for the NBA’s New York Knicks and 9.5% for the NHL’s New York Rangers.
AIG (AIG) has successfully completed its $6 billion sale of shares in Hong Kong’s AIA Group, though its sale priced at the low end of the expected range.

Nutrisystem (NTRI) took a 10% hit after-hours, after the weight loss plan purveyor reported a worse than expected fourth quarter loss and also gave a current quarter outlook that was well short of Street estimates. The company says new promotions to attract customers may cut into near term profitability.

And a commodity to watch: cotton. Prices were limit up Monday on news that India had banned cotton exports.

In the news: President Obama will hold his first news conference of the year at 1:15pm ET, with the economy and Middle East tensions expected to be prominent topics.
His news conference comes the same day GOP presidential candidates are battling it out in the “Super Tuesday” primaries.

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