Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures which are due in March fell 80 basis points to 1070.40. Atmel Corp (NASDAQ: ATML) fell 0.2% to $4.63. However, Atmel’s stock will improve, according to Bloomberg, since the District court has preliminarily approved Atmel’s historical practices in timing its stock option grants. Atmel Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets various non-volatile memory and logic integrated circuits using its proprietary technology.
Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) seem to look positive as they converted more mortgages under President Barack Obama’s anti-foreclosure program. As a result of this, home loan delinquencies for both the companies rose 4.2% in October. Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to create a continuous flow of funds to mortgage lenders. Fannie Mae buys and holds mortgages, and issues and sells guaranteed mortgage-backed securities to facilitate housing ownership for low to middle-income Americans. The Company was chartered by the United States Congress, but went public in 1970.
Oceaneering International Inc (NYSE: OII) has also forecast an improvement in its earnings from an EPS of $3.35 to $3.55. Oceanneering’s stock’s has gained 2.9% and is priced at $56.26. Oceaneering International, Inc. is a global provider of engineered services and products to the offshore oil and gas industry. It offers services and products in remotely operated vehicles, mobile offshore production systems, engineering and product management, manned diving and other deep water applications. It also serves the defense and aerospace industries.
Urban Outfitters Inc (NASDAQ: URBN) has increased by 3.5% to be priced at $32.67. Another achievement for Urban is that it will replace Affiliated Computer Services Inc (NYSE: ACS) in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. However, Intrepid Potash Inc (NYSE: IPI) will take Urban Outfitters' position in the Standard & Poor’s MidCap 400 Index. Urban Outfitters, Inc. operates retail stores and direct response, including a catalog and Web sites. The Company's Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie retail concepts sell fashion apparel, accessories, and household and gift merchandise. Urban also designs and markets young women's casual wear which it provides to the Company's retail operations and sells to retailers worldwide.
The final recommendation is that for CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) CME is set to increase because it is a prime contender to buy a Dow Jones Index unit. CME Group operates a derivatives exchange that trades futures contracts and options on futures, interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities.
