Futures Higher After JPMorgan Earnings. Stocks to Watch: AKAM, AAPL, CSIQ, FSLR, GS, GOOG, HSP, JPM, and GWW

Published on Thursday, 15 July 2010 08:44 Written by Christopher Lynn

New York, July 15^th (TradersHuddle.com) – Stock futures pointed to a higher open after JPMorgan beat analyst expectations outweighing the economic growth concerns spurred from yesterday’s release of the FOMC minutes.

JPMorgan beat analyst expectations by 67 cents, sparking s rebound in the futures market.

On the economic news, The Labor Department is out with the weekly report on initial unemployment claims at 8:30 am, with economists looking for claims to come in at 445,000.

Also at 8:30 am, the June producer price index will be released, with consensus forecasts calling for a drop of 0.2%. The core PPI is expected to rise 0.1%. At the same time the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Empire State Survey will be released.

The Federal Reserve's release of June industrial production figures will be out at 9:15 am. Production is expected to have fallen 0.1% during the month. And at 10 am, the Philadelphia Fed index will be released.

Today’s stocks to watch: Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ), First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Hospira (NYSE:HSP), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), and WW Grainger (NYSE:GWW).

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM), the provider of delivery services for streaming media, will have some upside bias after Oppenheimer said that online video trends would drive upside for the Second Quarter. The firm notes that recent data points

Oppenheimer notes, recent data points suggest that content delivery network pricing trends have continued to stabilize. Pricing declines coupled with expected 40-50% volume growth should drive upside on the top line. The analysts also highlight the recent World Cup Soccer action, which generated a number of record traffic days for Akamai in June and should be a catalyst for the second quarter results.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), the maker of the iPhone and the iPad, will hold an unusual press conference at 1:00 PM New York time to discuss the iPhone 4 antenna design issue. After initially dismissing the reports that the device losses signal strength if hold in a certain manner, the issue has become a Public Relations headache for the company and threatening to damage the impressive brand that they have build over the years.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ), the maker of solar panels based in Ontario, Canada, was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo. Shares of Canadian Solar were jumping more than 2.5% in pre-market trading.

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), the largest maker of thin film solar modules in the world, will have some downside bias, after a bearish note from Wunderlich.  The firm notes that to maintain its position as low-cost provider, First Solar has to lower its production costs faster than its competitors. Firm believes it may have reached a limit that puts it on par with, not ahead of, its competitors with regard to the rate of cost reductions. In its view, the company may have reached a limit on how far it can raise its earnings through tax adjustments and accounting standard adoptions and believe additional silicon solar supply will come online in the second half of the year, adding pressure to margins.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), the premier investment banking firm, is gaining more than 0.5% in pre-market. CNBC reported that Goldman is in discussion for all in one settlement with the Securities Exchange Commission.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), the owner of the largest Internet search engine, was flat in pre-market trading. The Internet giant will be reporting its corporate results today after the close, with analysts on average expecting a profit of $6.55 a share on revenue of $5 billion. The range of expected earnings per share is $0.82 cents, in the low end analysts expect a profit of $6.06 per share and on the high side a profit of $6.88 per share.

Hospira (NYSE:HSP), the specialty pharmaceutical and medication Delivery Company, was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein. Shares of Hospira fell close to 1.00% in pre-market trading.

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), the second largest U.S. lender, was the first of the bog financial institutions to report its corporate results. The company reported better than expected earnings of $1.09 per share with in-line revenue of $25.61. The lender said that despite consumer-lending net charge-offs and delinquencies declining, they remain at extremely high levels and therefore returns in consumer-lending businesses are still unacceptable. Dick Bove on CNBC said the results were not good as a whole, as JPMorgan has taken money out of reserves and put that into earnings; they have lowered certain expense categories; deposits are down, and loans are down. He also said that he do not see any impact from FinReg in the next 12 to 18 months.

WW Grainger (NYSE:GWW), the domestic and international business-to-business distributor, raised its earnings per share guidance to $6.10-6.40 versus consensus of $6.10. The company also raised its sales growth guidance to 12 – 14% from the 9-12%, previously forecasted. Analysts were projecting a 12.4% sales growth rate.