Another Thursday; Another String of Good News

Today the good news just kept on coming... You'll remember that last Thursday also featured a string of positive economic stories.

• Great News for Chips

  Toshiba posted a smaller operating loss than the company had forecast after production cuts helped ease a glut and drive up prices of the semiconductors.

  Chip-related shares are on the Rise as Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest producer has climbed as much as 4.8 percent, while Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has been up as much as 11 percent in Seoul trading today. Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc. has risen as much 9.9 percent in Tokyo and all of Taiwan’s five listed memory chipmakers, including Nanya are advancing ... Stock Symbols: TOSBF.PK, SSNLF.PK, ELPDF.PK

• Tempur-Pedic Investors Will Rest Easy - Earnings Beat Easily

  "An easing commodity environment and our productivity initiatives have generated substantial margin improvement..." -Tempur-Pedic CEO, Mark Sarvary

  http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUKBNG38324020090416

  Stock Symbols: TPX

• Google: 9.2 percent rise in quarterly net profit

  "Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession -- while revenues were down quarter over quarter, they grew six percent year over year thanks to continued strong query growth" - Eric Schmidt, CEO
  

  http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/16042009/323/google-profit-first-quarterly-revenue-drop.html

  Stock Symbol: GOOG

• Regions Financial: Surprise Profit

  Following in the footsteps of the major banks this earnings season, Regions Financial announced it will handily beat expectations and like its big brothers will repay it's $3.5 billion infusion from the Treasury ASAP. Estimates had forecast a loss.

  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Regions-Financial-to-report-apf-14947509.html

  Stock Symbols: RF

  
  

• Surging Home Builder Sentiment

  The US Home builder sentiment index posted it's best one month gain in almost 6 years.

  http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE53E51C20090415?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

• Signs of Better Times - Rosetta's Big Debut

  IPOs are here again. Rosetta Stone's issue will likely be seen as the strongest placement in over a year. No doubt observers will begin to contemplate their own shelf registrations...

  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Rosetta-Stone-soars-42-rb-14947068.html?sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

• Another Big Bank Beats

  So far this has not been a gloomy earnings season.

  JPMorgan beat estimates handily. Bears are struggling to come up with excuses for why these big banks are instantly profitable. This recession started with the banks, it need to end with them.

  http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/16/briefing-americas-open-markets-equity-jpmorgan-housing.html

  Stock Symbols: JPM

• Panic about Jobs subsiding...

  Now that initial claims have fallen substantially for two weeks in a row, panic in the employment arena is subsiding.

  The two week fall supports our data showing that corporations are laying off significantly less workers in Feb and then again in March, than they had earlier in the year...

  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aly.gP4Yr97k&refer=home

So far this earnings season there continues to be no basis for earnings fear. In fact as the markets continues it's swift accent higher, the S&P 500 index is now up over 3% since earnings season began last Monday morning.