10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

SAM RO 

JUL. 23, 2014, 7:20 PM

REUTERS/Alex Kuzmin

Ukrainian parliamentary deputies tussle during a session in Parliament in Kiev July 22, 2014.

Good morning! Here’s what you need to know:

Apple Beats On The Bottom Line. Apple reported Q2 earnings jumped 22% year-over-year to $1.28 per share, beating expectations for $1.23. Revenue was a bit light, climbing just 6% to $37.43 billion; analysts were looking for $38 billion. During the quarter, iPhone sales jumped 13% to 35.2 million units, iPad sales fell 9% to 13.3 million units, and Mac sales jumped 18% to 4.4 million units.

Apple Huge In China. On the earnings conference call, CEO Tim Cook said iPhone unit sales spiked 48% in China. Cook said China was surprising because its a market that’s actually contracting as a whole.

Microsoft Blames Nokia. Microsoft reported Q2 revenue of $23.38 billion, which was a bit higher than the $23.01 billion expected. Earnings, however, was disappointing at $0.55 per share; analysts were looking for $0.60. Management blamed its Nokia acquisition for taking $0.08 off the bottom line.

Bing! Bing search ad revenue was up a whopping 40%, and Microsoft says it now has 19.2% of the U.S. search market share.

Global Chemical Giant Beats. Dow Chemical reported earnings of $0.74 per share, beating expectations for $0.71. Dow is bellwether of global economic activity. “Gains were reported in all operating segments, led by Performance Plastics (up 4 percent) and Electronic and Functional Materials (up 5 percent),” said management. “Agricultural Sciences also increased sales, rising 3 percent in the quarter and achieving a first-half sales record of $4 billion.”

PepsiCo Beats, But Takes A Swipe At The Economy. Global beverage and snack giant PepsiCo reported Q2 earnings of $1.32 per share, beating expectations for $1.23. Organic revenue grew 3.6% during the quarter. “Despite operating in what continues to be a challenging and volatile macro environment, we are delivering consistent, strong results,” said CEO Indra Nooyi.

Markets Are Up. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 is up 0.3%, France’s CAC 40 is up 0.5%, and Germany’s DAX is up 0.6%. In Asia, Japan closed down 0.1% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8%. U.S. futures are up with Dow futures up 25 points and S&P futures up 3.3 points. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 touched an all-time intra-day high of 1,986.24.

Demand For Mortgages Pick Up. The MBA Mortgage Applications Index climbed 2.4% last week, driven by a 4.1% jump in refinancings. Purchase applications rose 0.3%. This comes as the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage holds steady at 4.33%.

Deutsche Bank’s Got Problems, Says Fed. “An examination by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that Deutsche Bank AG’s giant U.S. operations suffer from a litany of serious financial-reporting problems that the lender has known about for years but not fixed, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal,” reported the WSJ’s David Enrich, Jenny Strasburg and Eyk Henning. “In a letter to Deutsche Bank executives in December, a senior official with the New York Fed wrote that reports produced by some of the bank’s U.S. arms ‘are of low quality, inaccurate and unreliable. The size and breadth of errors strongly suggest that the firm’s entire U.S. regulatory reporting structure requires wide-ranging remedial action.’”

Chrysler Recall. “Chrysler Group LLC said on Tuesday it is recalling 792,300 older-model Jeep SUVs for ignition switch problems, the second recall of its kind for the No. 3 U.S. automaker this year,” reported Reuters Bernie Woodall. “This brings to 1.68 million the number of vehicles Chrysler has recalled for ignition switches that can be bumped out of the “on” position by a driver’s knee, which can cause the engine to shut off and disable air bags.”