Market Currents

• Thursday, December 3, 2009

• 08:54 AM Sony (SNE) CEO Howard Stringer says holiday-season sales have been brisk: "We saw a very positive sales increase for TVs, computers and PS3 in particular. I don't think there were any negatives, but we need a little more time to find out how big it was." Stringer also said Sony has adjusted to a stronger yen, and that he'll stay at the helm for at least three more years. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, December 2, 2009

• 11:07 AM GameStop (GME) -8.5% after Wal-Mart (WMT) rolls out discounts on top video games. "Many of the GameStop stores overlap in close proximity to a Wal-Mart store, as GameStop has historically sought to benefit from Wal-Mart's foot traffic," analyst Tony Wible notes. Gaming stocks are also under pressure: NTDOY.PK -3.7%. ATVI -2.3%. SNE -2%. Comment!

• Sunday, November 29, 2009

• 15:59 PM Top-five Thanksgiving weekend movies: 1) The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($42.5M, #1 last week, Summit). 2) The Blind Side ($40.1M, #2, TWX). 3) 2012 ($18M, #3, SNE). 4) Old Dogs ($16.8M, n/a, DIS). 5) A Christmas Carol ($16M, #5, DIS). 1 Comment

• Friday, November 27, 2009

• 12:30 PM Sony (SNE) gets bold about 3-D TV, saying that the new sets will account for up to half the televisions they sell in three years. The company expects revenues of more than ¥1T ($11.4B) from 3-D products in 2013. 1 Comment

• Friday, November 20, 2009

• 16:34 PM Bonds - $4B in bonds. Suitors including News Corp. (NWS), Time Warner (TWX), Sony (SNE) and Qualia Capital are beginning to circle around the MGM film studio - owner of the "James Bond 007" franchise as well as a 4,100-film library - which considers a sale among its options to get out from under $4B in debt. 2 Comments
• 14:07 PM Barnes & Noble (BKS -1.8%) sells out its first run of Nook e-readers, and won't ship more until after the New Year. With e-reader supply issues at Sony (SNE) as well, Amazon.com (AMZN) may have a bigger opening for Christmas Kindle sales. 1 Comment

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 09:25 AM Sony (SNE) says its new Daily Edition Reader - promised to be ready for the holidays - will only ship Dec. 18 through Jan. 8, adding that the actual delivery date can’t be guaranteed. Barnes & Noble (BKS) said the same last week. Late orders could leave the field wide open to Amazon (AMZN). Separately, Sony pushed back its elusive 5% operating profit margin target - originally slated for 2008 - to 2013. Comment!

• Monday, November 16, 2009

• 09:26 AM In an interview over the weekend, Sony (SNE) CEO Howard Stringer said the consumer electronics industry continues to languish and that "we are waiting for a signal that hasn't arrived." Stringer noted a stronger yen and tougher competition from Korea and China had hurt the Japanese market, while in the U.S. he warned the recovery "will be neither a V nor a W, but an L." 2 Comments

• Friday, November 13, 2009

• 07:40 AM The only game console to tick higher in October was the Wii (NTDOY), with 507K units sold vs. 463K in September. PS3 (SNE) dropped to 321K from 492K in September after a price cut. Xbox 360 (MSFT) declined to 250K from 353K. Top title was Sony's "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" at 537K, followed by Nintendo's "Wii Fit Plus" at 441K. (MW) 1 Comment

• Friday, October 30, 2009

• 04:41 AM Sony (SNE): FQ2 net loss of ¥26.3B ($287.5M) vs. consensus of -¥40.4B. Revenue of ¥1.66T (-20%). Sees full-year net loss of ¥95B, up from a previous forecast of -¥120B and -¥98.9B last year. Sees sales -5.6%, unchanged. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: ACI, AEE, AIV, ALU, AOC, AXL, CEG, CMC, CMI, CMS, CVH, CVX, D, DUK, EL, ITT, NI, NYX, PAG, PGN, REG, SHPGY, SNE, SPG, THI, UPL, WY, YRCW Comment!

• Friday, October 16, 2009

• 10:26 AM Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC): Q3 loss of €164M ($245M) on sales of €1.62B (-42%). Handsets shipped declined 45% to 14.1M, with the average selling price up to €114 from €109. Market share of around 5%, and the company expects total market will shrink about 10%. [[SNE]] -1.5%, [[ERIC]] +0.8%. (MW) 1 Comment

• Friday, October 2, 2009

• 10:47 AM Sony's (SNE) PS3 outsold Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii in Japan for the first time in September. Sony cut the price of the PS3 by 25% on Sept. 3 and introduced an improved model. Comment!

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009

• 14:05 PM Summit Entertainment, the studio that scooped up teen vampire movie Twilight from Paramount (VIA), is close to hiring Morgan Stanley (MS) to help it identify potential acquisitions that could include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (owners: Sony (SNE), Comcast (CMCSA), TPG Capital, Providence Equity Partners, and others) or The Weinstein Co. Comment!

• Thursday, September 24, 2009

• 09:07 AM Nintendo (NTDOY.PK) is cutting the price of its popular Wii game console by 20%, a response to similar cuts by rivals Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT). In the U.S., a Wii will now set you back $199.99, $50 less than before. PS3 and Xbox each cost about $300. Nintendo has so far outsold its rivals in this generation of consoles, but sales have tailed off in recent months. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, September 23, 2009

• 13:31 PM Dutch firm iRex enlists Verizon Wireless (VZ), Qualcomm (QCOM), Best Buy (BBY) and Barnes & Noble (BKS) for help in its new e-reader to be sold later this fall. The new reader crowds into a market featuring devices from Amazon.com (AMZN), Sony (SNE) and soon from Plastic Logic. Comment!