Stocks to watch for Thursday, July 17, 2008:
 

  • BlackRock (BLK) reported 2Q net income of $274 million, or $2.05 cents a share, up 23% from $222.2 million, or $1.69 a share a year ago and beating analyst expectations. Revenue climbed 26 percent to $1.39 billion. Bloomberg reports this is the seventh straight quarter of earnings gains for BLK. The results were attributed to a sharp increase in assets under management, including deals to liquidate troubled investment portfolios for others.

  • Continental Airlines (CAL) said it lost $3 million, or 3 cents per share for the 2Q, down sharply from a profit of $228 million, or $2.03 a share a year ago. Excluding $22 million in one-time gains, the carrier lost $25 million, or 25 cents per share, in the latest quarter. Revenue was up to $4.04 billion, a 9% rise from a year ago. Fuel costs contributed to the loss as it has past labor as the company's largest expense.

  • EBay (EBAY) posted 2Q earnings of $460 million, or 35 cents per share, up 22% from $376 million, or 27 cents per share a year ago citing growth in e-commerce and its PayPal service. Revenue rose 20 percent to $2.20 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 41 cents a share on revenue of $2.17 billion. The company's outlook was softer than expected however, as it forecast 3Q earnings of 30-32 cents a share (39-41 cents a share adjusted) on revenue of $2.10-2.15 billion. Analysts were expecting 41 cents a share on revenue of $2.18 billion.

  • JP Morgan (JPM) reported a 53% drop in 2Q profit. The company reported earnings of $2 billion, or 54 cents a share, down from $4.23 billion, or $1.20 a share a year ago. Along with rising defaults in mortgages and other loans, the drop was attributed to its purchase of Bear Stearns, which lost more than half a billion dollars for the company. JPM's investment bank wrote down $1.1 billion.

  • Nokia (NOK) reported 2Q profit of $1.75 billion, or 46 cents a share, down 61% from $4.49%, or $1.14 a share a year ago when results had priced in gains from a joint venture with Siemens AG (SI). Sales rose 4 percent to $20.87 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 56 cents per share on $20.05 billion in revenue.

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Market Recap
 

  • Asian trading closed with the Hang Seng +2.41%, Nikkei +1.00%, Sensex +4.26%, Taiwan +3.93% and Shanghai -0.78%.

  • Over in Europe, we see the CAC +2.38%, DAX +2.21%, FTSE +1.95%, ATX +3.51%, Swiss Market +2.26% and Stockholm +3.47%.

  • Commodities are dipping with crude oil down -1.06 to 133.54 and gold lower -5.1 to 957.6 this morning.