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NASDAQ edges closer to 11 year high; Coffee Roasters, Viacom and Costco in focus

Friday, February 03, 2012 by Proactive Investors

The NASDAQ is now just 14 points away from surpassing the 11 year high of 2873, as the U.S. equity markets continue to shake off the European woes. Precious metals remain strong, with spot gold rallying to US$1760 an ounce.

U.S. equity markets were mixed overnight as investors digested comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and focused their attentions on Greece's debt talks.

By the close the Dow Jones had eased just five points to 12,711, with the NASDAQ 11 points stronger to 2860.

U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke reiterated that the Fed expects to hold interest rates at ultra-low levels until late 2014, which raised some speculation that the Fed could start a third round of easing if conditions deteriorate.

The Fed chief also described the pace of recovery as "frustratingly slow", with the slow recovery leaving the economy particularly vulnerable.

Meanwhile, a deal to restructure Greece debt was also highly anticipated by investors, with some sort of conclusion expected to come by the end of the week.

In corporate news, social networking site Facebook late Wednesday filed regulatory documents as it looked to raise $5 billion from an initial public offering, boosting the tech sector on Thursday.

The IPO could see the social networking site valued as much as $100 billion, putting it in the top ten IPOs of all time. Facebook is planning to have its shares trade under the ticker symbol "FB".

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ:GMCR) shares jumped more than 22 percent after the company reported its first-quarter revenue more than doubled compared to a year earlier.

Viacom (NASDAQ:VIA), the owner of Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central, Thursday posted a 65 percent drop in fiscal first-quarter earnings as it took a charge related to the "Rock Band" series of video games.

In what is typically the smallest sales month of the year, many retailers, including Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Limited Brands (NYSE:LTD), and Target Corp (NYSE:TGT) beat Street expectations for same store sales despite being one of the warmest Januarys in 50 years.

Women's apparel retailer Ann (NYSE:ANN) said Thursday it forecasts reporting fourth quarter results below expectations, citing weaker-than-anticipated results at its Ann Taylor stores, sending shares down more than 7%.

Abercrombie & Fitch's (NYSE:ANF) stock also fell after the teen apparel retailer reported weak same-store sales for the latest quarter and lowered its earnings guidance.

On the economic front, initial jobless claims for the week that ended January 28 totaled 367,000, according to the Labour Department, better than the 375,000 anticipated.

A survey from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed planned job cuts surged 28% in January to 53,486 - marking the highest total since 116,000 job cuts were announced in September.

The government's highly anticipated jobs report is due out Friday morning, and is expected to show the US economy added 130,000 jobs in January. In December, 200,000 jobs were added.

Commodities

In NYMEX trading, crude for March delivery slipped 97 cents to $96.64 a barrel while gold futures for April delivery added $2.10 to $1,751.60 an ounce.

Europe

European markets finished higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX was up 0.59% while France's CAC 40 rose 0.27% and Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.09%.

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