Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know
NEW YORK (
) -- Here are 10 things you should know for Tuesday, July 30:
1.
-- U.S. stock futures were trading flat to slightly higher early Tuesday as the
Federal Reserve
begins a two-day policy meeting.
European stocks were rising moderately while Asian shares finished Tuesday's trading session mostly to the upside. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 1.5% to close at 13,869.82.
2.
-- The
in the U.S. Tuesday includes the Case-Shiller 20-city Index for May at 9 a.m. EDT and consumer confidence for July at 10 a.m.
3.
--
on Monday U.S. fell amid concern that markets have risen too high this year, and that when the Federal Reserve does decide to pull back on its stimulus measures, equities could start to tumble.
The
S&P 500
dipped 0.37% to 1,685.33 while the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
slipped 0.2% to 15,521.97. The
Nasdaq
declined 0.39% to 3,599.14.
4.
--
Pfizer
(PFE) - Get Report
, the world's biggest drugmaker, posted second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates and said it it planned to separate its commercial operations into two units for branded products and a third unit for generic drugs.
, which represents 17% of total sales, has far lower profit margins than its patent-protected drugs, according to
Reuters
. Analysts have been urged Pfizer to spin off its generics business, and this business split could lead to that.
Pfizer posted adjusted income of $4 billion, or 56 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of $4.45 billion, or 59 cents a share. Revenue fell 7% to $12.97 billion.
Analysts were expecting second-quarter income of 55 cents a share on revenue of $13.01 billion.
5.
-- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in an enforcement notice, said
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
manipulated electricity prices in California and the Midwest in 2010 and 2011.
The FERC notice could be a prelude to a settlement with the largest U.S. bank.
The commission accused JPMorgan of using improper bidding strategies to squeeze excessive payments from the agencies that run the power grids in California and the Midwest.
6.
--
BP
(BP) - Get Report
, the British oil giant, swung to second-quarter profit of $2 billion from a year-earlier loss but the earnings missed Wall Street forecasts.
BP made more provisions for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, increasing the total by about $200 million to $42.4 billion.
7.
--
Time Warner Cable
(TWC)
late Monday announced a blackout of
CBS
(CBS) - Get Report
programming in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas but then reversed the decision.
Time Warner Cable said around midnight EDT that roughly 3 million customers in those cities would lose the CBS network and four CBS cable stations because of "outrageous demands for fees" by CBS. But talks between the companies continued into the early morning hours on Tuesday; a Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said the company relented "at the request of CBS."
8.
--
Alcatel-Lucent
(ALU)
said chipmaker
Qualcomm
(QCOM) - Get Report
would buy a stake of less than 5% in the telecom equipment maker under a research partnership valued at about €100 million.
9.
--
Goodyear Tire
(GT) - Get Report
is forecast by analysts to report on Tuesday second-quarter earnings of 48 cents a share.
10.
-- Insurer
Aetna
(AET)
is forecast to report quarterly profit of $1.41 a share.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
Joseph Woelfel
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