Equity Analysis

Current trends in the semiconductor industry are indicating some rough weather ahead for ASML Holdings, which makes manufacturing equipment. Semiconductor companies are trimming capacity to cope with oversupply. A Thomson Reuters StarMine analysis suggests that ASML may miss quarterly earnings estimates. The semiconductor industry has been coping with high levels of inventory for a couple [...]

Headwinds have become tailwinds for Blackstone Group, as analysts expect the robust stock market and booming housing market to lead to a series of strong earnings reports over the course of 2013. Private equity group Blackstone Group (BX.N) timed its IPO perfectly, going public only months before the major market indexes recorded their highs in [...]

Short sellers — investors who believe a stock’s price will go down — can get caught in the market equivalent of a horror movie if the price rises. So what’s a good method for possibly avoiding the terror of a short squeeze? We find that volatility is a key measure (rather than the usual indicators) [...]

March was always likely to be a tough month for retailers to post big same-store sales gains, given the magnitude of last year’s advances, but the cold weather dealt another blow to analysts’ forecasts, leaving the Thomson Reuters Same Store Sales Index likely to post a gain of only 1.8%. Retailers are about to post [...]

Gap is celebrating a great year of a return to financial and fashion health. Now, with the retailer about to post its first negative same-store sales figure in nearly a year, the question is whether it can sustain that success further into 2013. This is one of a series of special reports delving into the [...]

A series of strong preseason reports sets the stage for a better-than-expected first quarter earnings season, as companies find lowball estimates easier hurdles to clear. Today, Alcoa Inc. (AA.N) is scheduled to report its first quarter results, kicking off the new earnings season. As investors focus on Alcoa and prepare to scrutinize the first batch [...]

Overcapacity issues have put a big dent in corporate profits at SanDisk Corp. and its data storage industry rivals; now a new discipline appears to prevail, setting the stage for higher profits and even a positive earnings surprise. Over the last few years, manufacturers of data storage and memory chips have been plagued by overcapacity [...]

Electronic Arts is struggling to parlay the popularity of its sports-themed gaming franchises and the SimCity games into higher earnings, but the company’s own acknowledgment of a disappointing quarter may prove to be just the tip of the iceberg: analysts have downgraded not only the outlook for the just-ended fourth quarter but for the new [...]

With both major U.S. market benchmarks now trading at or near all-time records and unease growing about the prospect of some kind of pullback, the markets have become more volatile. Still, investors continue to keep the dial in the “risk on” position, continuing to put money to work in both bonds and stocks. Only municipal [...]

Japan’s stock market is on a tear, backed by the Bank of Japan, now acting as decisively as the Fed in trying to drive down the value of its currency with the goal of transforming deflation into economic growth. It may work — but what are the pros and cons for investors pondering putting money [...]