Stock Futures Point to a Weak Open. Stocks to Watch: AMZN, AAPL, EXPR, FCX, GD, LNCR, NEM, NKE, SD, WAG

Published on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 08:10 Written by Christopher Lynn

New York, June 22^nd (TradersHuddle.com) – Futures pointed to a weaker open, as the euphoria from China abandoning the Dollar peg faded and concern over the pace of the global economic growth returned.

Overseas, Asian shares fell on concern over exports and European stocks were lower amid economic growth concerns. The Chinese yuan fell, after Chinese banks buy Dollars, with some analysts speculating that it will be another way for the government to keep currency appreciation at a rate, which they found comfortable. And the euro was weaker against the greenback.

On economic news, May existing home sales will be released at 10 am, with the consensus forecasting a rise to an annual rate of 6.1 million homes, up from a rate of 5.77 million in April.

Additionally, the Treasury will sell $40 billion in 2-year notes later, with the results available shortly after 1 pm. It will follow up by selling $38 billion in 5-year notes Wednesday and $30 billion in 7-year notes Thursday.

Today’s stocks to watch: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR), Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX), General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), Lincare (NASDAQ:LNCR), Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), Nike (NYSE:NKE), SandRidge Energy (NYSE:SD), and The Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), the maker of the iPhone and the iPad, set a new al-time high yesterday of $279.01, before pulling back to finish with a loss for the session as technology shares fell on concern costs related with China will increase. Apple releases officially its new iPhone operating system and will be launching the iPhone 4 in 2 days. Additionally, yesterday a e-book price war started as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), the largest online retailer, cut its price for the kindle, the e-book reader, in order to compete with Barnes and Nobles (NYSE:BKS) e-book reader. Both book retailers are clearly feeling the effect of Apple’s iPad and are trying to prevent customers to migrate to the iPad away from their e-book readers.

Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR), the apparel specialty retailer chain, will likely see a boost from analysts’ ratings. The company was initiated with a Buy at Goldman and with Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX), the largest publicly traded copper producer in the world, will be in focus as copper prices followed other based metals lower on concern over future demand, as enthusiasm from the China news faded. Freeport McMoRan was falling 0.7% in European trading, however the U.S. existing home sales later in the morning can provide support to the stock and metal prices like copper.

General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), the diversified defense company and maker of Gulfstream business jet, announced it acquired the privately held Kylmar, an industry leader in the design and manufacture of sensor and optical surveillance systems. Shares of General Dynamics finished practically flat yesterday.

Lincare (NASDAQ:LNCR), the in home oxygen and other respiratory therapy services provider, was upgraded to a Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), the largest gold producer, was weaker in European trading, as the China news of abandoning the Dollar peg, affected the momentum in Gold prices.

Nike (NYSE:NKE), the athletic footwear and apparel giant, will likely see a boost from a bullish note from FBR Capital ahead of its scheduled earnings release tomorrow. FBR Capital noted that despite inflationary pressures building in Asia, European exposure and potentially difficult comps from the world cup, they like the company dominant position in the U.S. and robust growth in emerging markets, which should mitigate the potential headwinds. FBR Capital noted that their domestic and European checks remained strong, as they continue to recommend Nike.

SandRidge Energy (NYSE:SD), the exploration and production of oil and natural gas companyt, was initiated with a Buy at Wunderlich and a target price of $10 a share. The analysts believe potential acquisition of Arena Resources and the previous Forest Oil Permian acquisition, coupled with SandRidge's core Piron Field, should help increase production, cash flows and reserves as the company can produce their assets with the best returns.

The Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG), the operator of retail drugstores offering pharmacy services and general merchandise, reported a worst than expected profit with in-line revenue. Walgreen missed by $0.04 a share after it reported a profit of $0.53 a share on revenue of $17.2 billion. Total same store sales increased 0.7% in the quarter, while same store front-end sales increased 0.1%. Front-end sales were impacted by continued weak demand for discretionary goods and by lower demand for flu-related products compared with the year-ago quarter.