Stock Market Today, Jan. 22: U.S. stocks today are mixed and trading in a fairly narrow range as corporate earnings season continues - with lackluster results. Investors are cautious ahead of economic data tomorrow that includes jobless claims and existing home sales reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average today is down 0.24% at 16,374. The Standard & Poor's 500 is up 0.2% at 1,841, and the Nasdaq Composite Index is up 0.46% at 4,245.
Energy futures are up today, with light sweet crude oil for March delivery up 0.57% at $95.51 per barrel and heating oil for February delivery up 0.5% at $3.03 per gallon. Natural gas is up a substantial 2.3% at $4.53 per million BTUs today.
Meanwhile, metals futures have dipped a bit today. Gold for February delivery is down 0.1% at $1,240.50 per ounce and silver for March delivery is down 0.1% at $19.86 per ounce.
Now for today's biggest corporate earnings results...
Several companies are releasing quarterly earnings today, many of which have disappointed Wall Street for much of this session.
Among the earnings weighing stocks, Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is down about 7% today as it reports second-quarter earnings of $1.06 per share, below the analyst consensus of $1.11 per share. Sales were $1.42 billion, just under Street expectations for $1.48 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Victor Luis said Coach continues "to be disappointed by our performance in North America, which was impacted by substantially lower traffic in our stores." In fact, Coach has had the worst same-store sales in 13 years, according to MarketWatch. However, Luis said China sales continue to be "resilient," with sales up 25%.
In technology earnings news today, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is down more than 3% after it reported fourth-quarter earnings of $6.13, ahead of the analyst consensus of $6.00 per share. Revenue was $27.7 billion, below expectations of $28.2 billion. IBM's management said it had a difficult cash flow year in 2013, with cash flow down more than $3.0 billion.
But healthcare stocks are where the bigger share price moves are, with one doubling in trading today...
In healthcare sectors earnings today, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is down about 2% today as it reports fourth-quarter earnings of $0.58, in line with the analyst consensus. Sales were $5.65 billion, short of the Street view of $5.71 billion.
Abbott says that it expects an increase in share buybacks to more than $2 billion in 2014. For fiscal 2014 earnings, the company expects ongoing earnings of $2.16 to $2.26 per share. The Street view is for $2.21 per share.
And Meridian Bioscience (Nasdaq: VIVO) is down about 1% after it reported financial results for the first quarter that were on par with analysts' expectations.
Meridian Bioscience reported first-quarter earnings of $7.4 million, or $0.18 per share, compared with the prior-year period's $8.47 million or $0.20 per share. Revenue was $44.8 million, down 1% from $45.35 million in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.20 per share on revenue of $44.79 million.
Finally, Luna Innovations Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNA) is up about 100% this session, marking a new 52-week high at $3.36.
LUNA is soaring after an earlier trading halt after hitting its circuit breakers. The company said it has sold its shape-sensing technology for medical applications to Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG), which is down about 1% this session. Luna will get about $12 million in the deal and up to $18 million on reaching certain milestones.
Next: Don't miss this true "ground floor" opportunity in a $10 billion industry...
