#PreMarket Primer: Tuesday, March 25: Group Of Seven Calls For Tougher Sanctions

Two decades after integrating Russia into international decision making, world leaders gathered at an emergency meeting and decided to remove Russia from the Group of Eight until the nation changes course in Ukraine.

In a joint statement following the meeting, the Group of Seven leaders criticized Russia for its recent actions and expressed concern about the large number of troops stationed at Ukraine’s border.

The group also called for broader economic sanctions in order to continue to hammer the Russian economy. Most expect that Russia’s ties with the global market will likely remain strained until the Kremlin backtracks on its annexation of Crimea.

Top News

In other news around the markets:

• Box Inc. announced that it is planning to raise $250 million in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BOX. The company, which was worth less than $200 million just ten months ago, has been investing heavily in new customer acquisition which created a $168.6 million loss for the fiscal year that ended in January.
• Standard & Poor’s downgraded Brazil’s credit rating one notch above junk to triple-B-minus. The ratings agency cited weak growth and rising debt as reason for their poor outlook on the South American nation.
• Cisco Systems is joining the cloud computing race and announced that it plans to spend $1 billion over the next two years to build data centers and run its new service, called Cisco Cloud Services. The company is trying to tap into the online storage market as customers are turning more and more to rental computing services rather than buying and maintaining their own.
• Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed into the southern Indian Ocean. Bad weather temporarily suspended search efforts, however airline officials announced that all 239 people on board were presumed dead on Monday.

Asian Markets

Asian markets were in sync with Wall Street and took a step lower on Tuesday. The Japanese NIKKEI lost 0.36 percent, the Shenzhen composite lost 0.12 percent, the Hang Seng index was down 0.45 percent and the South Korean KOSPI lost 0.22 percent.

European Markets

European markets had a rocky start; the UK’s FTSE lost 0.56 percent and the eurozone’s STOXX 600 was down 1.41 percent. Italy’s MIB fell 1.65 percent and France’s CAC 40 lost 1.36 percent

Commodities

Energy futures were moderately lower; Brent futures lost 0.10 percent and WTI futures were down 0.07 percent. Gold lost 1.65 percent and silver was down 1.26 percent. Industrial metals were mixed with Copper up 0.80 percent, but zinc down 0.36 percent.

Currencies

Currency markets were quiet on Tuesday; the euro was stable at $1.3839 and the pound lost 0.01 percent against the dollar. The greenback lost 0.04 percent to the yen and gained 0.04 percent against the Australian dollar.

Earnings

Notable earnings released on Monday included:

Renesola Ltd. SOL reported fourth quarter EPS of $0.00 on revenue of $438.80 million, compared to last year’s loss of $0.53 per share on revenue of $306.45 million.

Sonic Corp. SONC reported second quarter EPS of $0.07 on revenue of $109.70 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.05 on revenue of $111.14 million.

• Exa Corporation EXA reported fourth quarter EPS of $0.03 on revenue of $15.20 million, compared to last year’s loss of $0.01 per share on revenue of $13.13 million.

Pre-Market Movers

Stocks moving in the Premarket included:

• The Coca-Cola Co KO gained 1.56 percent in premarket trade after falling 0.10 percent on Monday
• Perrigo Company PLC PRGO was up 0.81 percent in premarket trade after losing 1.93 percent on Monday
• Carnival Corp CCL was up 0.60 percent in premarket trade ahead of its earnings report.

Earnings

Notable earnings releases expected on Tuesday include:

• Walgreen Co. WAG is expected to report second quarter EPS of $0.93 on revenue of $19.57 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.96 on revenue of $18.65 billion.
• Carnival Corporation CCL is expected to report a first quarter loss of $0.08 on revenue of $3.56 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.08 on revenue of $3.59 billion.
• McCormick & Company, Incorporated MKC is expected to report first quarter EPS of $0.58 on revenue of $973.20 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.57 per share on revenue of $934.40 million.
• Steelcase Inc. SCS is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.17 on revenue of $772.00 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.41 per share on revenue of $721.40 million.

Economics

Tuesday’s economic calendar will be dominated by US data including new home sales, crude stockpile data, and consumer confidence. Other notable economic releases include British RPI and eurozone trade balance.

For a recap of Monday’s market action, click here.

Tune into Benzinga’s pre-market info show with Dennis Dick and Joel Elconin here.