Some Market Events on Thursday...

Here’s a list of a couple of things happening in the market that caught my attention on Thursday:


J.C. Penney (JCP) – the company took investors by storm after announcing their new plan under CEO Ron Johnson and his management team ("We are fundamentally re-imagining every aspect of our business, and we fully expect the bold and strategic changes we are making to our operations will result in improved profitability.").


The stock exploded out of the gate at the open, and never looked back, finishing 18.79% higher at more than $40 per share. Management announced during the event that they expect full year earnings for fiscal year 2012 to meet or exceed 2010 earnings per share of $2.16 on an adjusted basis ($1.59 on a GAAP basis), meaning the stock currently trades at 18.5x the non-GAAP measure.


PepsiCo (PEP) – the company announced that they have reached 22 billion dollar brands, with Diet Mountain Dew, Brisk and Starbucks ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages having now reached more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. MSN Money responded with an article calling the announcement “baloney” since they “can’t dazzle investors will brilliant results”, which in my opinion completely misses the point; for long term investors, this is yet another example that the company can develop brands and has the distribution capabilities to get their products to consumers around the globe.


Yum! Brands (YUM) – the company announced that they will start serving breakfast at their Taco Bell restaurants in nearly 800 restaurants in 14 states, and is teaming up with brands like Johnsonville, Cinnabon, Tropicana and Seattle's Best; if successful, the company will expand the offering to 5,600 locations nationwide by 2014.


Procter & Gamble (PG) – the company will report earnings Friday morning; according to First Call, the consensus range is $1.03-$1.11 for EPS, and $21.71B-$22.63B on the top line. Personally, I’m hoping for a miss on some short term issue like commodity costs that knocks the stock back and creates a buying opportunity for investors.