Stocks have turned negative in late morning trading as housing data disappoints. The Nasdaq is trading positive right now, but was negative earlier today. Existing home sales fell about 1% in February after seeing a more than 5% gain in January. Inventories also rose last month, causing further worries about the ongoing housing recovery.
All eyes will be on jobless claims tomorrow as a string of negative economic data points could cause the market to being its long awaited pull back.
As of 11:38am the Dow is down 33 points, the Nasdaq is up 5 points and the S&P 500 is down 1 point.
NYSE Stocks to Watch
Meritor, Inc. (NYSE:MTOR) is up 11.93% today at $8.35. MTOR is trading above average volume this morning with 2.1 million shares traded, 400 thousand shares more than its daily average. Meritor shares are climbing today after reaffirming its guidance for fiscal year 2012. The company has a market cap of 783.46 million.
Omnova Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN) is up 18.73% in early trading at $6.72. OMN has traded 608 thousand shares so far today, well above its daily average of 152 thousand shares. OMN shares are rallying today after the company reported earnings yesterday and beat estimates on EPS and revenue. Omnova reported revenue of $275.9 million with EPS of $0.22. The company has a market cap of 305.84 million.
SAIC Inc. (NYSE:SAI) is up 4.71% today at $13.76. SAI has traded nearly 5 million shares so far today, more than double its average volume. SAIC Inc. reported fourth quarter earnings yesterday. The company reported a loss of $0.49 per share as it set aside $308 million more to cover a settlement of New York’s CityTime payroll system scandal. If this scandal had not occurred, the company would have posted a profit of $0.31 per share. The company has a market cap of 4.74 billion.
InterXion Holding N.V. (NYSE:INXN) is up 5.19% today at $16.61. INXN has traded 1.5 million shares so far today, soaring past its daily average of 262 thousand shares. Jefferies initiated coverage on the company today and gave it a buy rating. The company has a market cap of 1.10 billion.
Lee Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:LEE) is up 4.55% today at $1.15. LEE is seeing big volume today with 1.1 million shares traded. The stock trades 440 thousand shares on average. Lee Enterprises updated its business outlook today and expects revenue trends for the quarter ending later this month to be similar or slightly better than the previous quarter. The company also plans to introduce digital subscribers in more markets. THe company has a market cap of 51.70 million.
Youku Inc. (NYSE:YOKU) is up 4.71% in late morning trading at $26.27. YOKU has traded 2 million shares so far today and averages 3 million shares a day on average. YOKU shares are trying to bounce back today after falling from $32 to $25 over the past week. The company has a market cap of 2.99 billion.
Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG) is up 4.65% today at $22.72. HIG has traded 18.9 million shares so far today, more than double its average volume. Hartford shares are jumping today after the company said it would exit its annuity business and consider sale of a large portion of its life-insurance operation. This latest announcement from Hartford comes as John Paulson pressured the company to “do something drastic” to boost the share price. The company has a market cap of 10.07 billion.
Cemex, S.A.B. (NYSE:CX) is up 3.73% today at $8.07. CX has traded just over 9 million shares so far today and trades 17.6 million shares a day on average. Cemex has been trading in a range between $7.40 and $8 for the past month. The company has a market cap of 8.46 billion.
About Martin Stephenson
