Stocks to watch for Friday, May 9, 2008:
 

  • Activision (ATVI) reported fiscal 4Q profits of $44.2 million, or 14 cents a share, sharply up from $14.4 million, or 5 cents a share a year ago. Revenue soared 93% higher to $602.5 million from $312.5 million. Analysts had expected $369.1 million and ATVI had forecasted $350 million. The company cited strong sales of titles such as "Guitar Hero III" and "Call of Duty 4" for the strong results.
  • American International Group (AIG) reported a 1Q loss of $7.81 billion, or $3.09 a share, down from a profit of $4.13 billion, or $1.58 a share a year ago. The company has plans to raise $12.5 billion in capital in the coming months, with the first portion estimated to raise $7.5 billion through an offering of common stock and equity units. Then it will raise an additional $5 billion through an offering of high equity fixed-income securities.
  • Citigroup (C) is expected to announce the sale of $400 billion in extraneous assets at today's investor and analyst meeting. According to Reuters, CEO Vikram Pandit wishes to follow up on his promise to cut annual expenses at the largest U.S. bank by roughly 20%. The company has recorded more than $45 billion of writedowns and credit losses, raised more than $40 billion of new capital including $2 billion of preferred shares this week, and slashed its dividend 41 percent since last year.
  • General Motors (GM) has agreed to contribute $200 million to auto parts supplier American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings in order to end the 10-week strike. According to the Associated Press, GM said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it would provide the financial support for temporary payments to supplement reduced wages, and to fund employee buyout and early retirement packages.
  • Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) reported fiscal 1Q net income of $176.8 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $132.3 million, or 22 cents a share a year ago. Revenue was $1.15 billion, up from $844.3 million. Adjusted income was 36 cents a share. The company was expected to report earnings of 38 cents a share, on revenue of $1.15 billion, according to Thomson Financial.


Market Recap
 

  • Asian trading closed with the Hang Seng -1.52%, Nikkei -2.06%, Sensex -2.01%, Taiwan -0.84% and Shanghai -1.19%.
  • A quick check of Europe finds the CAC -2.32%, DAX -1.29%, FTSE -1.32%, ATX -0.71%, Swiss Mkt. -1.82% and Stockholm -1.42%.
  • Over in commodity land, crude oil is higher +1.15 to 124.84 and gold is also up nicely +6.6 to 888.7 this morning.