The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Boeing, 3M, Barnes & Noble, Chevron and JPMorgan Chase

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Oct 13, 2014, 09:30 ET

CHICAGO, Oct. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include the Boeing Company (NYSE:BA-Free Report), 3M Company (NYSE:MMM-Free Report), Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS-Free Report), Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX-Free Report) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM-Free Report).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

Dow 30 Stock Roundup

The Dow continued to face rough weather, following its troubles last week, but for Wednesday. Rate hike fears and worries about third quarter earnings results led to losses for the blue-chip index on Monday. The Dow slumped on Tuesday after concerns about global growth particularly that of the Eurozone's dented investor sentiment.

The blue chip index rebounded on Wednesday after Fed Minutes reassured investors that the central bank will be patient before raising rates. However, the Dow declined again on Thursday, suffering its largest point decline following dismal economic data from Germany . The Dow has lost nearly 2% during the first four trading days.

The Dow Last Week

The Dow lost 0.1% on Monday as rate hike fears and worries about third quarter earnings results dented investor sentiment. Markets had opened higher banking on Friday's stronger-than-expected jobs data. However markets started trading lower as investors became apprehensive that positive jobs data may spur earlier-than-anticipated rate hike.

Meanwhile, recently released disappointing economic data from the Eurozone and stronger dollar also raised concerns about third-quarter earnings. The overall trend in estimates has been toward the downside for the third quarter earnings.

Markets ended in the red on Tuesday as concerns about global growth, particularly that of the Eurozone's, dented investor sentiment. On Tuesday, Germany ' s industrial production suffered 4% drop in August, its biggest fall in five and a half years. It was also reported on Monday that factory orders dropped 5.7% in August, its biggest decline since 2009.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now expects global growth to be 3.3% this year, down from previous forecast of 3.4%. IMF also reduced its guidance for next year's global growth from 4% to 3.8%. It blamed sluggish growth conditions in Japan , Latin America and Europe for lowering its guidance.

Moreover, dismal earnings and sales outlooks also dragged down the benchmarks. Some companies are reducing their third quarter earnings and sales estimates due to the drop in global demand. The Dow hit the lowest level since mid-August, slumping 1.6% on Tuesday.

The Dow rebounded on Wednesday, gaining 1.6% to end in the green on Wednesday. Fed Minutes reassured investors that the central bank will be patient before hiking rates. The FOMC said it will wait for inflation and unemployment rate to achieve the central bank's targets, before deciding on raising rates. Subdued rate hike fears helped markets gain significantly.

The Fed cited sluggish global economic growth, stronger dollar and geopolitical tensions as the main barriers that are preventing the Fed from hiking the interest rate. Stronger dollar was a key issue discussed in this meeting. Fed officials said it will be difficult to achieve the 2% inflation rate target under current circumstances. All major benchmarks registered their best one-day percentage gains this year.

The blue-chip index lost 2% on Thursday, suffering its biggest decline in over a year. Germany 's dismal export data raised concerns about global growth and increased volatility in the markets. Exports in Germany plunged 5.8% in August, registering its biggest drop since early 2009. International Monetary Fund (IMF) along with some economic institutes lowered its guidance for economic growth in Germany .

Mario Draghi, president of European Central Bank (ECB), said the ECB will opt for more effective monetary stimulus in order to pull up inflation rates in the Eurozone. Moreover, decline in oil prices also dragged down energy stocks. The WTI crude oil price dropped 1.8% to $85.77 per barrel, reaching its lowest level since Dec 2012. Additionally, the price of Brent crude oil also dropped 1.5% to $90.05 per barrel.

Components Moving the Index

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA-Free Report) reported strong delivery numbers for the third quarter as well as the first nine months of 2014. Boeing's share price closed at $126.36 on Oct 3, reflecting a gain of 8.29% over the last twelve-month period.

In its third quarter of 2014, Boeing delivered 186 commercial airplanes, approximately 9.4% higher than the year-ago figure. During the quarter, the Next Generation 737 model proved its popularity once again, delivering 120 airplanes, followed by its 787 model with 31 deliveries. In the year-earlier period, the company had delivered 112 units of the 737 and 23 units of the 787 model. Boeing also delivered 27 units of 777 in third-quarter 2014 against 26 units in the year-ago period.

During the first three quarters of the year, Boeing delivered 528 commercial jetliners, 10.9% higher than the year-ago level. Meanwhile, Boeing's deliveries in the defense and space business were 48 in third-quarter 2014 versus 43 in the comparable period last year.

3M Company's (NYSE:MMM-Free Report) unit 3M Library Systems introduced the NOOK GlowLight – a new lendable eReader for its Cloud Library to facilitate an easy access to its library collections.

This new offering expands e-Book and technology access to library patrons throughout the U.S who do not have their own eReader, computer or smartphone. The libraries can purchase NOOK GlowLight eReaders directly from Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS-Free Report) stores for lending to patrons.

Chevron Corp.'s (NYSE:CVX-Free Report) affiliate Chevron Canada Limited has entered into an agreement with KUFPEC Canada Inc. to sell 30% of its stake in Duvernay shale play, located in west-central Alberta . The transaction is valued at $1.5 billion and will expectedly close in Nov 2014.

Chevron still remains the operator of the assets with 70% interest. This agreement has led to creation of a joint venture partnership, in which both the parties will work toward development of the 330,000 net acres in the Kaybob area in the play.

According to the company, early exploration results from the acreage located in this promising North American shale play have been encouraging.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM-Free Report) disclosed the extent of the data breach that had compromised customer information on its Chase.com and JPMorganOnline websites as well as on the respective mobile applications in a regulatory filing last week. The numbers are shocking, with nearly 76 million households and 7 million small businesses affected by the transgression.

The cyber-attack, on more than 90 servers of the bank, occurred as early as last June and was discovered in late August. JPMorgan had stated that the data breach included name, address, phone numbers and email addresses of its customers.

However, personal information such as account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers, user IDs or dates of birth were not stolen. Also, the financial information of JPMorgan's customers was not compromised.

Additionally, JPMorgan completed the previously announced partial sale of its physical commodities business to Mercuria Energy Group Limited. Despite paying lower than the original price of $3.5 billion, the deal remains the largest acquisition made to date by the privately-held Swiss international commodity trading company.

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