Morning Market Roundup (7/16/2012)

Photo of Stuart Stelzer
By Stuart Stelzer Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Subject: America’s Biggest Advertisers

The 10 largest advertisers in the United States spent $26.2 billion in 2011, according to Advertising Age, an advertising trade publication. While the number is huge, it looks even larger when total spending among the top 100 advertisers is considered. The top 10 accounted for more than a quarter of the $102.6 billion spent by the top 100 advertisers. Ad Age ranked the top 100 companies in terms of advertising spending in the United States. Based on the report, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 largest advertisers in America.

As always, here are the top major media headline summaries from WSJ, FT, Bloomberg, and more. Today’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in shares of APC, BUD, ACN, BKW, CTSH, DF, EPR, GE, GGP, MMM, PSX, QCOM, O, SNDK, SNH, SPG, SVU and SKT. Here are the top rumors of the day, and the most important financial news affecting the markets today.

This week is the big week for earnings from technology leaders. We previewed earnings for the stocks of INTC, EBAY, IBM, QCOM, GOOG, MSFT, NOK, SNDK, and AAPL.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is trading up on activist investor news, but we caution that this may have gotten ahead of itself. Take our poll so we can send it to the activist investors.

The board that will judge the future of P&G’s CEO is led in part by the CEO of Boeing (NYSE: BA), who has done poorly in his own job.

Martha Stewart Living (NYSE: MSO) had a big setback in its legal case against Macy’s (NYSE: M). Its new CEO was appointed largely because she set the deal.

The NABE reports that its members see an economic slowing. Those members control much of the country’s employment.

Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) is reportedly the next biotech buyout this morning, and Par Pharmaceutical Companies (NYSE: PRX) is being acquired by private equity. We recently gave a list of the next likely biotech buyout targets which have been in the rumor mill to look for secondary reactions.

Beware the dividend bubble in some key defensive stocks.

————————————————————-

If you have been a reader of 24/7 Wall St. for long you know by now that we have launched “The Wire” for readers to get a condensed full feed that is more compact than our homepage. The Wire includes breaking news that can move the market, real-time and with context, covering Company News, Economic Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Key IPO Filings, Mergers, and Key Industry News as it happens.

Visit and Sign Up for the RSS Feed to the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

————————————————————-

Have a great day!

JON C. OGG

Receiving this email late? Be sure to add [email protected] to your contacts. Not sure how? Click here for instruction.

Photo of Stuart Stelzer
About the Author Stuart Stelzer →

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618