Wednesday, March 23, 2011

US Stock Futures Point To Lower Open, Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) Eyed

Opening Bell
US stock-index futures pointed to a lower open on Wednesday as investors remained risk averse amid ongoing worries about unrest in the Middle East region and Japan's recovery efforts.  

At 8:32 am ET, the S&P 500 futures slipped 1.30 points to 1287. The Dow Jones Industrial average futures dropped 22 points to 11,933. The Nasdaq Composite futures decreased 6.75 points to 2,250.50.

General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS) reported Wednesday that its fiscal third-quarter earnings rose to $392.1 million, or 59 cents a share, from $332.5 million, or 48 cents a share, in the year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 56 cents a share in the latest qurter. Revenue rose 2% to $3.65 billion from $3.63 billion.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) reported first-quarter net income of $234.6 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with net income of $127.2 million or 24 cents a share for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 58 cents a share in the latest quarter. Revenue surged nearly 20% to $1 billion from $858.70 million. Analysts, on average, expect the company to report earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $1.03 billion. Citing the Japan disasters, Adobe said Tuesday that it has trimmed $50 million off of its expected revenue range for the second quarter. The company now expects to earn between 47 cents and 54 cents per share excluding items in the second quarter, on revenue of between $970 million and $1.02 billion.

Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) reported Tuesday that its fiscal second-quarter profit rose to $55.4 million, or 25 cents a share, from $29.8 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 54 cents a share in the latest quarter.Revenue jumped to $3.9 billion from $3 billion.me period a year ago. Shares of the company rallied as much as 10% in pre-market trading.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) said late Tuesday that it swung to a fiscal first-quarter net income of $459 million, or 84 cents a share, from a loss of $122 million, or 22 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

On the economic front, new home sales data is due for release at 10:00 am ET.

European stocks were mixed in afternoon trade. At 12:40 pm, the UK FTSE fell 2.75 points or 0.05% to 5,759.96. The German DAX dropped 0.44% while French CAC increased 0.1%.

Asian stocks finished lower. The Nikkei 225 declined 158.85 points or 0.81% to 9,449.47. 

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