U.S. Stocks: Blue-Chip Earnings Fail To Impress

Stocks were mixed Wednesday, with blue chips tracked by the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending lower while the broader S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indices withstood a late selloff to finish little changed. Commodity-related stocks fared best Wednesday, with shares of energy companies rising with the price of crude oil after the government's weekly inventory report found supplies contracted last week. Tech stocks rebounded after Apple Inc turned around in late trade after late yesterday disclosing plans to give back $55 billion to shareholders through increased dividends and stock buybacks.

U.S. Data
Equities sagged earlier after U.S. durable goods orders fell sharply in March, with the headline number sliding 5.7% and trailing expectations looking for a 3.2% dip, although analysts attributed much of the decline to a big drop in aircraft orders for Boeing (BA). But even when nondefense aircraft and parts are excluded, orders for goods expected to be used at least three years tumbled 48.2% last month following an 86.4% advance in February.

For Q1 as a whole, core orders grew at a 16.7% annualized rate, down just slightly from a 20% upward pace in Q4. Nondefense capital goods shipments - often viewed as an indicator of current capital spending - rose 2.1% in March but was down 1.6% for all of Q1, likely pointing to a pronounced slowdown in capital-spending metrics when preliminary Q1 gross domestic product figures are released Friday.

Among individual stocks, Procter & Gamble (PG) lost over 5% to drag down the Dow Jones Industrials Index after its $20.6 billion in Q3 revenue trailed the Capital IQ consensus by around $150 million. The consumer-products giant posted core earnings of $0.99 per share, ex one-time items, topping estimates by $0.03 per share.

But PG's forecast for FY13 earnings still lagged the Street view by at least a penny despite the company raising the lower end of its outlook by $0.02 to a new range of $3.96 to $4.04 per share. Its Q4 guidance for core EPS also trails analyst opinion, with the company projecting $0.69 to $0.77 per share, ex one time items, versus the consensus call among analyst of $0.81 per share.

Another Dow component, AT&T (T), similarly kept the brakes on the index Wednesday, posting its largest decline in nearly three years after its Q1 revenue trailed analyst projections.

Sales for the telephone communications company slid 1.5% year over year to $31.4 bln -- split roughly equally between its landline and mobile businesses - missing the analyst consensus by around $300 mln. It earned $0.64 cents per share, excluding some items, matching the average estimate.

Commodities were mostly higher. Crude oil for June delivery settled $2.25 higher at $91.43 per barrel. May natural gas was off 7 cents at $4.17 per 1 mln BTU. June gold rose $14.90 to $1,423.70 per ounce while May silver added 2 cents to finish at $22.83 per ounce. May copper rallied, climbing 6 cents to settle at $3.16 per pound.

Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End

• Dow Jones Industrial Average down 43.16 (-0.29%) to 14,676.30
• S&P 500 unchanged (0.00%) at 3,269.65
• Nasdaq Composite up 0.32 (+0.01%) to 3,269.65

• Hang Seng Index down 1.73%.
• Shanghai China Composite Index up 1.53%.
• FTSE 100 up 0.22%.

• (+) PBTH. Agrees to $480-mln acquisition by Opko Health (OPK), with PBTH shareholders receiving 0.9951 of a OPK share for each PBTH share they now own. The merger agreement also allows PBTH to solicit alternative offers through June 22. OPK is lower in late trade.
• (+) BRCM, Non-GAAP earnings of $0.65 per share top Street view by $0.09. Revenue of $2.01 bln beats by $99.65 mln.
• (+) SVU, Stocki rises despite the supermarket chain reporting a $0.14 per share adjusted Q4 net loss while revenue fell 2.3% to $3.89 bln. Analysts were looking for an $0.18 per share Q4 profit on $7.86 bln in revenue.
• (+) NFX, Q1 profit, excluding a loss on energy contracts, was $0.45 cents a share, beating analyst estimates by $0.02 per share.

• (-) VOCS, Q1 earnings miss by $0.01 per share. Guides Q2 EPS and revenue below Street. FY13 earnings and revenue projections also lag the consensus view.
• (-) AMGN, Q1 revenue of $4.2 bln trails analyst consensus by $170 mln. EPS of $1.96 beats by $0.12 per share. Sees FY13 earnings of $7.05 to $7.35 per share and between $17.8 bln to $18.2 bln in revenue this year. Street is at $7.21 per share on $18.0 bln in revenue.
• (-) DV, Fiscal Q3 revenue slides 5.9% from the same quarter last year to $509 mln, trailing the analyst consensus by around $7.64 mln. EPS of $0.90 beats estimates by $0.08. Reduced to Hold with a $28 price target at Deutsche Bank.
• (-) RPC, Q1 earnings of $0.16 per share lag the the Capital IQ consensus by $0.08 per share. Revenue slides 15.3% year over year to $425.8 mln, also trailing expectations by $43.48 mln.