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EARLY MOVERS: Cisco Systems surges as fiscal 1Q beats analyst expectations but PG&E takes another hit as California rage

Last updated: 01:00 16 Nov 2018 AEDT, First published: 19:00 15 Nov 2018 AEDT

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A fairly busy trading day looks in the cards for Thursday, with software giant Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) one of the major stocks piquing interest.

Its shares surged around 5% to $46.55 in pre-market trade as it posted better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings.

Earnings came in at $0.75 per share, not including certain items, compared to $0.72 a share, which had been expected by analysts.

Revenue came at $13.07 billion, compared with $12.87 billion expected.

Looking ahead, Cisco said it was expecting between $0.71 and $0.73 for EPS for the second quarter, between 5% to 7% revenue growth, which works out to between $12.48 billion and $12.71 billion.

In terms of what the markets are focusing on the day, it's the UK's planned withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit. There have been significant developments in the last 24 hours, including the Prime Minister dealing with several resignations.

In other news, investment bank giant JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) is up 1.57% in before the bell as news emerged that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK) has increased its holding in the bank.
 
It reportedly added more than 35 million shares of the group in the last quarter and now has an eyewatering approximate $4 billion stake as reported in Berkshire's latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) is also trading 3% higher on a second report of a big investment from Berkshire Hathaway which reportedly holds a 41.4 million share stake in the tech giant.

In other news, American utility firm PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG)  shares continued the slide downward after hours, having plunged 21% to $25 on Wednesday, as the California wildfire controversy continues to blaze.

The company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it "experienced an outage" on a transmission line in Butte County at 6:15 am on November 8, just 15 minutes before the fire that has so far claimed 48 lives broke out.

PG&E said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Elsewhere, the retailer Walmart (NYSE:WMT) nudged up slightly after posting mixed fiscal third-quarter results.

Walmart reported profits for the fiscal third quarter of $1.71 billion, compared with $1.75 billion a year ago. Stripping out items, Walmart earned $1.08 per share, beating the Street's consensus forecast by $0.07.

Its revenue, meanwhile, rose 1.4 percent to $124.9 billion, up from $123.2 billion a year ago, which failed to meet the consensus estimate of $125.6 billion. 

Last but not least, Netease Inc  (NASDAQ:NTES) saw its ADR shares add over 5% to $231 in pre-market deals as the  Chinese games firm posted better-than-expected revenue for the third quarter and cheered investors with a $0.45 quarterly dividend.

Revenue surged to $2.5 billion in the three months through September, which is a year-over-year increase of 35%. The firm stated that 68% of that came from online games.

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