9:10am (EST)
Futures are trading slightly higher this morning as the market looks to end a four-week losing streak. There is no economic news out today so the market will try to rally off earnings and enthusiasm. In fact, it is a relatively quiet week in terms of economic reports except the weekly unemployment report which is due out Thursday.
Hasbro (HAS, $33.30, up $2.50) is up 9% in pre-market trading after reporting a profit of $166 million, or $1.09 a share, versus of $94 million, or $0.62 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Wall Street has pegged the company to earn 81 cents a share.
The fourth quarter is big for toy makers since it contains the holiday period and can make up to half of the quarter’s sales. Hasbro said revenue climbed to $1.38 billion from $1.23 billion, topping Wall Street’s estimate of $1.34 billion.
Home Depot (HD, $27.98) got an upgrade to “Overweight” from “Equal Weight” from Morgan Stanley (MS, $27.26) as they believe Home Depot’s realignment has positioned them well to benefit from a housing recovery. Morgan gave the stock a $35 price target.
As we head to press, Dow futures are up 18 to 9,959 while the S&P 500 futures are higher by 3 to 1,063. The Nasdaq 100 futures are off by a point and are at 1,746.
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