It was another listless day for stocks as investors braced for some marquee earnings report later today and throughout the rest of the week, as well as the start of the looming Federal Reserve meeting.
With risk appetite hard to come by on Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.19 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.07%. The Nasdaq Composite extended a multi-day losing streak with a loss of 0.15%.
Although stocks delivered another lackluster showing today, BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) gave investors something to cheer about as they ascended to the best stocks of the day club.
BP plc (BP)
The American depositary receipts of BP plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company by market capitalization, jumped 5.4% after the company reported a surprising first-quarter profit of 17 cents a share. Analysts expected BP to lose 30 cents a share, and it earned 85 cents a share a year earlier. BP’s revenue slumped to $39.1 billion from $56.2 billion in the same quarter last year.
BP said its underlying replacement cost dropped to $532 million from $2.58 billion. Refining operations helped BP top estimates as exploration and production operations lost $747 million in the quarter.
BP said it will continue paying a quarterly dividend of 10 cents a share.
Comerica Incorporated (CMA)
Regional bank Comerica rose 3.3% on above-average volume after Chief Executive Officer Ralph Babb said he is open to selling the bank. Last week, rumors circulated that CMA could be open to a sale.
At CMA’s annual shareholders meeting, Babb told attendees the company is exploring alternatives and that it must earn the right to remain independent.
CMA is among the regional banks that have been pinched by slumping oil prices that led to a spate of loans to shale producers turned sour. A Bloomberg article did not mention specific names as potential suitors for CMA.
Micron Technology (MU)
Shares of Micron Technology, the maker of DDR4 and DDR3 DRAM products for computers, servers, network devices and other technology equipment, surged 9.1% on about double the average daily volume after rival SK Hynix delivered first-quarter results that were not as bad as expected.
South Korea-based SK Hynix sounded upbeat about the DRAM market, providing a boost to MU shares as a result of the encouraging commentary. Cowen & Co. analysts note price declines for Hynix products have recently been worse than reported by MU.
“These results were ahead of MU’s FQ2 (Feb) -9% Q/Q as MU ($10.55, Outperform) built inventory ahead of an expected ramp of 20nm and product qual timing w/ certain mobile customers. DRAM ASPs fell 14% Q/Q, even below MU’s brutal FQ2 11% Q/Q and third party PC DRAM data of -11% Q/Q during CQ1. Hynix reported a 11% Q/Q decline in NAND bits on softness in mobile, slightly below guide -10% Q/Q, well below MU’s FQ2 +11% Q/Q and above our SNDK ($75.67; Market Perform) CQ1 estimate of -23% Q/Q,” according to part of a Cowen note posted by Barron’s.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
