Thursday: Lots Of Data Coming Out Today; Big Earnings Report Day On Wall Street; Jobs Number Seems Very, Very Fishy -- January 29, 2015

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Reporting today:

• Amazon (AMZN): forecast 17 cents; blows away estimates; shares surge.
• Baxter (BAX): forecast $1.31; fourth-quarter earnings of $953 million.
  On a per-share basis, the Deerfield, Illinois-based company said it had net income of $1.74. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations, came to $1.34 per share.
• CARBO Ceramics (CRR): forecast 64 cents; profit of 2 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs and non-recurring costs, were 70 cents per share. The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 64 cents per share
• Cardinal Health (CAH): forecast $1.10; beats by $0.10, beats on revs: Reports earnings of $1.20 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.10; revenues rose 14.8% year/year to $25.54 bln vs the $23.48 bln consensus.
• COP: forecast 59 cents; ConocoPhillips reports EPS in-line; Co expects to deliver 2-3% production growth in 2015 from continuing operations, excluding Libya: Reports  earnings of $0.60 per share, in-line with the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.60. Co expects to deliver 2-3% production growth in 2015 from continuing operations, excluding Libya.
• Enterprise Products Partners (EPD): forecast 37 cents; Enterprise Products misses by $0.01, misses on revs; currently expect growth capital expenditures of ~ $3.5 bln and sustaining capital expenditures of ~$380 mln: Reports earnings of $0.36 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.37; revenues fell 22.2% year/year to $10.19 bln vs the $12.85 bln consensus.
• Ford (F): forecast 23 cents; Ford Motor Co., rolling out a new aluminum version of its F-150 pickup, said fourth-quarter profit fell 98 percent as it restricted production of its top-selling truck and was battered by losses in Europe and South America. Ford reported net income of $52 million, or 1 cent a share, down from $3.04 billion, or 74 cents, a year earlier. Excluding one-time costs, such as a charge in Venezuela, the profit was 26 cents a share, beating the 22-cent average estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. For the full year, Ford posted pretax profit of $6.3 billion, better than the $6 billion it forecast as it cut financial goals in September.
• Google (GOOGL): forecas $7.11; miss; shares fall; $6.88 per share.
• Helmerich & Payne (HP): forecast $1.53; Earnings per share from continuing operations (excluding special items) came in at $1.70, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.57. Revenues of $1,056.6 million was substantially higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $974 million.
• OXY: forecast 68 cents; core income for the fourth quarter of 2014 of $560 million ($0.72 per diluted share), compared with $1.2 billion ($1.46 per diluted share) for the fourth quarter of 2013. The fourth quarter of 2014 had a reported loss of $3.4 billion ($4.41 per diluted share), compared with income of $1.6 billion ($2.04 per diluted share) for the fourth quarter of 2013. The spin-off of California Resources Corporation was completed on November 30, 2014, and its financial and operational results have been classified as discontinued operations.
• Phillips 66 (PSX): forecast $1.34;  $2.05 per share; fourth-quarter earnings of $1.1 billion, compared with earnings of $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Adjusted earnings, excluding special items of $234 million, were $913 million in the fourth quarter, compared with adjusted earnings of $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2014.
• Valero Energy: beats by $0.51, reports revs in-line : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.83 per share, $0.51 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.32; revenues fell 19.1% year/year to $27.86 bln vs the $27.64 bln consensus. 

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs in North Dakota:

	1/29/2015	01/29/2014	01/29/2013	01/29/2012	01/29/2011
Active Rigs	148	190	187	204	163

RBN Energy: a look at hydrocarbon storage in the northeast -- natural gas, gasoline, and propane.

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Job Watch

Bloomberg: Link here to what seems to be a very, very fishy number.

Jobless claims plunged by 43,000 to 265,000 in the week ended Jan. 24, the lowest since April 2000, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 51 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 300,000. The week included the Martin Luther King holiday, which makes the data more difficult to calculate, a government spokesman said as the report was released. 

The Labor Department revised the prior week’s reading to 308,000 from an initially reported 307,000.  

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, dropped to 298,500 from 306,750 in the prior week.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 71,000 to 2.39 million in the week ended Jan. 17. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.8 percent during that period, today’s report showed.

Comment: there almost seems to be something bogus or surreal about this number. The jobless claims usually move up or down by 5,000; sometimes as much as 15,000, but that is very rare. When I saw this plunge of 43,000, something seems way off. It will be interesting to see what the revised number is next week. In addition, the plunge does not square with all the layoffs in the oil and gas sector. Something seems very, very fishy. 

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The Road To New England

The Boston Globe is reporting: a sweeping new bill on Beacon Hill aims to dramatically reshape the state's energy landscape by addressing high electricity prices and concerns about the regional grid's reliability. I assume this is in light of Cape Wind being suspended from being part of the grid.

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Selfies

Islamic cleric issues fatwa against female selfies. I wonder if that includes female suicide bombers.