Futures Higher as European Jitters Ease. Stocks to Watch: AXP, AAPL, BA, INTC, NAV, NEM, PVH, TXN

Published on Wednesday, 08 September 2010 08:20 Written by Christopher Lynn

New York, September 8^th (TradersHuddle.com) – Stock futures gained, signaling an early rebound to yesterday’s losses, as European sovereign debt jitters eased after a successful Portuguese government bond auction.

Investors awaited the release of the Fed’s beige book, the region-by-region assessment of the nation's economy, which will be release at 2 PM. At 3 PM the government will release the latest consumer credit figures, with economists forecasting a $5.3 billion drop.

The Treasury will sell $21 billion in 10-year notes later, with the results available shortly after 1 pm. The Treasury is set to sell $13 billion in 30-year bonds Thursday.

Today’s stocks to watch: American Express (NYSE:AXP), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Boeing (NYSE:BA), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Navistar (NYSE:NAV), Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), Phillips-Van Heusen (NYSE:PVH), and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN).

American Express (NYSE:AXP), the credit card issuer, will likely see some volatility in the last hour of trading after the U.S. government releases the latest data on consumer credit, with economists expecting another drop.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), the maker of the iPhone and iPad, gained more than 1% in pre-market trading to $260.22. While the stock has been in a trading range for some months we had saw a failure in late August at the $240 level and now a wave of buying that pushed the stock back into the $260 level. The key level to watch is $265, which marks significant resistance, if Apple is able to find momentum in a climbing market and push thru this level, we could see a breakout in the stock to another range.

Boeing (NYSE:BA), the second largest commercial aircraft maker in the world, will have a upside bias after RBC Capital initiated coverage in the stock with an Outperform and a target price of $78, close to a 23% potential upside from yesterday’s close price of $63.42.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), the world’s largest chipmaker, was fractionally lower in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at UBS, on further weakening demand in the consumer electronics space.

Navistar (NYSE:NAV), the maker of medium and heavy-duty trucks, reported better than expected earnings but missed revenue estimates. Navistar posted a profit of $1.83 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.36 better than consensus; revenues jumped 28.5% year over year to $3.22 billion versus consensus of $3.57 billion. The company also issued mixed guidance for FY10, reaffirms EPS of $2.75-3.25 vs. consensus of $2.98; sees FY10 revs of $12.0 billion vs. $12.38 billion consensus.

Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), the largest gold producer in the world, will likely have an upside bias, as Gold gained 0.4% in London, trading close to the record high set in June.

Phillips-Van Heusen (NYSE:PVH), the multi-brand apparel maker, was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray following the company’s increased outlook. Phillip-Van Heusen increased its full-year forecast, saying it expects to earn as much as $3.80 a share excluding some items. The company had previously projected $3.65 at most.

Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), the maker of digital signal processing (DSP) and microcontroller (MCU) semiconductors, will provide a mid quarter update on Thursday after the close. Analysts at Auriga expect for management commentary to reflect relative stable third quarter trends, as broad based slowdown in the consumer electronics channel will not be evident yet; however their checks suggest the slowdown in the consumer channel is not spreading to the communications equipment space with industrial likely behind.