Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News DeskApril 3, 2012
The new month and quarter is off to a bullish start on Wall Street, with the Dow and the S&P 500 finishing the Monday session at multi-year closing highs. With its nearly 1% gain, the Nasdaq Composite also avoided its first five-day losing streak since November.
Several key reports may determine whether that trend will continue today: U.S. automakers are out with their March sales figures throughout the day today, with analysts expecting an annual sales rate of 14.5 million units. The government is out with February factory orders at 10am ET, expected to rise 1.5% following a 1.0% increase in January. And the Federal Reserve will issue the minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting at 2pm ET.
The earnings calendar is virtually blank once again today, in the “calm before the storm” of earnings season, which begins next week.
We’ll watch shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) this morning, following news that directors John Bryan and Lois Juliber will not stand for reelection, and that James Schiro will be the new lead director.
Avon Products (AVP) is in the news once again, a day after it was the target of a $10 billion takeover offer from privately held Coty. Avon has elected former Campbell Soup CEO Douglas Conant to its board of directors.
3D Systems (DDD) will be the newest member of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, as it replaces Taleo Corp. (TLEO) after the close of trading on April 5th. Taleo is being acquired by Oracle (ORCL) in a deal expected to be completed later this week.
Allegiant Travel’s (ALGT) Allegiant Air unit will become the latest to charge passengers for using the overhead bins on flights, as it institutes a $35 fee beginning Wednesday.
Google (GOOG) and Oracle (ORCL) are headed to trial in an intellectual property case involving Google’s Android mobile software. This follows a settlement conference this past weekend that failed to produce results.
Solar stocks could possibly get a boost after the CEO of Suntech Power (STP) told Reuters he expects his company – and the industry – to return to profit in the fourth quarter. Suntech, First Solar (FSLR), Trina Solar (TSL) and others all reported 2011 losses as prices fell and supplies of equipment rose.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will file its once-weekly diabetes drug for regulatory approval, following favorable results from clinical trials.
China internet service provider Sina (SINA) has restored commenting functions to its microblogging service, after shutting that function down for a few days as the result of a government censorship crackdown.
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