Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average index futures added 0.2% and Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.2%. Nasdaq index futures rose 0.2%.
On Wednesday, the Dow lost 0.4% to 15,900.82. The S&P 500 shed 0.4% to 1,781.37. The Nasdaq lost 0.3% to 3,921.27.
WEDNESDAY STOCKS: Fed news whacks Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.9% to 15,365.60, boosted by a weaker yen. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.5% to 23,580.29.
Benchmarks across Europe were mixed. Britain's FTSE 100 index was flat at 6,681 and Germany's DAX index fell 0.3% to 9,171.
Top Trucking Stocks To Watch Right Now: Salesforce.com Inc (CRM)
Salesforce.com, inc., incorporated in February 1999, is a provider of enterprise cloud computing and social enterprise solutions. The Company provides a customer and collaboration relationship management (CRM), applications through the Internet or cloud. Cloud computing refers to the use of Internet-based computing, storage and connectivity technology to deliver a variety of different services. The Company delivers its service through Internet browsers and mobile devices. It markets its social enterprise applications and platforms to businesses on a subscription basis, primarily through its direct sales efforts and indirectly through partners. In January 2011, it acquired Heroku, Inc. and DimDim, Inc. In May 2011, the Company acquired Radian6 Technologies Inc. In September 2011, the Company acquired Assistly. In August 2012, the Company acquired Buddy Media. In May 2013, SalesForce.com Inc acquired Clipboard Inc.
The Company introduced Chatter, a collaboration application for the enterprise to connect and share information securely and in real-time. It serves its customers from third-party data center hosting facilities located in the United States and other countries. The Company�� primary applications are sales cloud, service cloud, salesforce chatter, Salesforce Radian6 and Salesforce Data.com.
The Company�� customers are able to establish a system and process for recording, tracking, and sharing information about sales opportunities, sales leads, sales forecasts, the sales process, and closed business, as well as managing sales territories. Customers are able to create social profiles of their customers, based on information from social networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Its customers are also able to manage unstructured information, such as sales collateral, presentations, price lists, and video assets. In addition, the Sales Cloud encompasses partner relationship management functionality (including channel management and partner portals) and m! arketing automation (including campaigns, and return-on-investment tracking).
The Company�� customer service and support automation features are marketed under its Service Cloud brand and allow its customers to service and engage with their customers. Using the Service Cloud, companies can access a solution for their customer service interactions across every service channel: call centers with phone, email, and chat; Web portals for self-service and customer collaboration; and community interactions within social networks. In addition, built-in collaboration tools enable customer service agents to share information on how to better service customers.
The Company�� Chatter application enables customers to create private employee social networks for companies of all sizes in order to improve employee collaboration. For customers of its Sales and Service Cloud editions, Chatter is included free for all subscribers. In addition, it offers Chatter Plus edition, designed to provide access to Chatter for employees in customers��organizations who are not subscribers of a Sales or Service Cloud edition. It delivered features, including Chatter Now for real-time collaboration, and Chatter Customer Groups enabling users to invite people outside their organizations, such as customers and partners, into their Chatter network to collaborate in a secure environment. Chatter is a core attribute of its Force.com platform and its social capabilities are an integral part of each of its application offerings and its Social Enterprise solution.
The Company�� Radian6 application provides its customers a tool for social media monitoring and marketing. The application allows companies to listen, analyze, engage and measure their brand�� presence within social media. It provides companies with a database of business contacts, company profiles and social insights. Delivered as a service, data.com integrates with its applications to provide the business data that helps companies in! crease th! eir pipeline of sales leads.
The Company�� cloud platforms provide application developers access to new capabilities that can be built into their business applications. These platforms include features popularized by social networking companies, such as profiles, status updates and feeds, and also the capability to extend applications for use on mobile devices. In addition, they run on its Database.com offering, an open enterprise database built for social and mobile computing. Its cloud platforms allow both information technology (IT) departments and independent software vendors (ISV) developers to use several programming languages to build their applications. Developers are able to use the programming languages on its cloud platforms, such as Java and Ruby, to build their applications, and its cloud platforms support multiple other languages to provide developers openness and choice.
The Company has two platform offerings: Force.com and Heroku, and offer additional developer tools, such as Database.com and the AppExchange. The Force.com cloud computing platform provides a feature set and technology environment for building business applications, including data models and objects to manage data, a workflow engine for managing collaboration of data between users, a user interface model to handle forms and other interactions, and a Web services API for programmatic access and integration. Heroku is a cloud platform for application developers to build and deploy social and mobile applications. Built on open standards, Heroku supports multiple frameworks, databases, and languages, including Java and Ruby. The AppExchange is an online directory that provides customers a way to browse, sample, share, and install applications developed on its Force.com platform. Partners and developers can offer their applications and services for a fee on the AppExchange directory. This directory gives its users a way to find and install applications to expand their use of the Force.com platform t! o areas t! hat are complementary to its social enterprise solution.
The Company offer consulting, deployment and training services to our customers to facilitate the adoption of its social enterprise services. Consulting services consist of services, such as business process mapping, project management services and guidance on best practices in using its service. Deployment services include systems integration, technical architecture and development, configuration and data conversion, as well as developing and delivering customized education programs for its customers. Most of its consulting and deployment engagements are billed on a time and materials basis. It offer a number of traditional classroom and online educational classes that address topics, such as deploying, using, administering and developing on its service. It also offers classes for its partners who deploy its service on behalf of its customers.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Cornelius Rahn]
Software buyers, led by those in the U.S., are increasingly opting for software they can access via the web rather than for packages that take weeks or months to be installed on their own servers. Oracle and Walldorf, Germany-based SAP have both acquired a series of cloud software providers to meet this demand and to keep Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) and Workday Inc. (WDAY) from taking parts of their core business.
- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Thursday
Earnings Expected From: Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU), Gap (NYSE: GPS), Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR), Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL), Gamestop (NYSE: GME) Economic Releases Expected: U.S. existing home sales, eurozone consumer confidence, U.S. manufacturing PMI, British retail sales, eurozone manufacturing PMI, eurozone services PMI, German manufacturing PMI, German services PMI, French manufacturing PMI, French services PMIFriday
- [By John Divine]
The second-largest laggard of the day, Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM ) , lost 5.3% after a weak quarter of its own. The quarter wasn't so much weak as expensive: Increasing costs brought margins down. The company lost nearly $70 million in the first quarter, even though core revenue ticked upwards. But with operating expenses rising nearly 30% and interest expense surging 87%, it's tough to post an impressive quarter.
- [By Jonas Elmerraji]
Salesforce.com (CRM), on the other hand, has had a slightly less blockbuster year. The $27 billion customer relationship management software maker is only up around 7.3% since the calendar flipped over to January, strong performance for a normal year, but far less strong performance for a year when the S&P 500 is up close to 19%.
But investors aren't just betting on underperformance from CRM. By and large, they're betting on a drop. Currently, the firm's short interest ratio weighs in at 13.04.
At its most simple, Salesforce makes software applications that help its 100,000 customers interact with their own customer lists, handling everything from sending newsletter to tracking sales. Because the firm's applications have a direct and measurable correlation with sales, switching costs are higher than most business apps. After all, customers are a lot less likely to stop paying for software when they can see exactly how much it's contributed to their top line.
Because CRM sells its software as a service hosted in "the cloud" rather than an application hosted on users' computers, it boasts an attractive subscription-based model. That model provides recurring revenues with limited effort in periods subsequent to picking up new customers -- and because integration with the Salesforce.com platform is deep, customers can't simply jump ship without investing heavily in new systems.
Even though CRM has prioritized reinvestment over profitability in the last few years, it generates enough cash to turn the ship around quickly if the capital markets so dictate.
Top 5 Gas Utility Companies For 2014: Golden Minerals Co. (AUMN)
Golden Minerals Company engages in the mining, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Mexico and South America. It explores for silver and gold dor茅 bars, precipitates, lead, zinc, and pyrite concentrates. The company holds 100% interests in the Velarde帽a and Chicago precious metals mining operations that cover approximately 600 hectares located in the State of Durango, Mexico; and the Zacatecas silver and base metals project that consists of 195 concessions covering approximately 8,600 hectares in Mexico. It also owns interests in the El Quevar project that comprises 32 exploitation concessions covering approximately 55,000 hectares in the province of Salta, Argentina; and controls approximately 40 exploration properties that cover approximately 320,000 hectares located in the regions of Mexico and South America. The company was formerly known as Apex Silver Mines Limited and changed its name to Golden Minerals Company in March 2009 as a result of reorgan ization. Golden Minerals Company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Golden, Colorado.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Zacks Investment Research]
Headquartered in Golden, Colorado, Golden Minerals Company (AUMN) owns mining operations and precious metals exploration properties in Mexico and South America.
Top 5 Gas Utility Companies For 2014: Matrix Service Company(MTRX)
Matrix Service Company provides construction, and repair and maintenance services primarily to the energy and energy related industries in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Construction Services, and Repair and Maintenance Services. The Construction Services segment offers aboveground storage tanks for the bulk storage/terminal industry, capital construction for the downstream petroleum industry, and specialty construction, as well as electrical/instrumentation services, such as civil/structural, mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation, millwrighting, and fabrication for various industries. This segment focuses on renovations, retrofits, modifications, and expansions to existing facilities, as well as construction of new facilities. The Repair and Maintenance Services segment provides aboveground storage tank repair and maintenance services, including tank inspection, cleaning, and American Society of Mechanical Enginee rs code repairs; planned major and routine maintenance for the downstream petroleum industry; specialty repair and maintenance services; and electrical and instrumentation repair and maintenance. It serves integrated oil companies, independent petroleum refiners, power companies, engineering firms, general contractors, and petrochemical and industrial gas companies, as well as pipeline, terminal, and oil and gas marketing companies. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Travis Hoium]
What: Shares of energy service provider Matrix Service (NASDAQ: MTRX ) jumped 10% today after an analyst upgraded the stock.
So what: Analysts at Sidoti upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "buy" today. This was the only news out about the stock and drove traders to push volume to nearly twice its three-month average. �
Top 5 Gas Utility Companies For 2014: Malvern Federal Bancorp Inc.(MLVF)
Malvern Federal Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Malvern Federal Savings Bank, which is a federally chartered savings bank. It provides banking services in Pennsylvania. The company engages in attracting deposits from the general public and using those funds to invest in loans and investment securities. Its deposit products include interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, as well as money market, savings, and certificate of deposit accounts. The company?s loan products principally include one-to four family residential mortgage loans; and consumer loans comprising home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans, unsecured personal loans, and loans secured by deposits. It conducts business from its headquarters and eight full-service branches in Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tim Melvin]
Malvern Federal (MLVF) is a great example of a small financial institution at a cheap price with a sound financial condition. The bank has 8 branches in the Chester and Delaware counties of Pennsylvania. The bank has been around since 1897 and currently has about $600 million in assets. MLVF has a great balance sheet, with an equity-to-assets ratio of 10.9 and nonperforming assets that are just 1.98% of total assets.
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