Bank of America Corp (BAC), Carnival Corp (CCL) & More: 5 Stocks Making Morning Moves

The markets opened on a positive note today, shaking off the negative trend of recent trading sessions, despite the World Trade Organization announcing the slashing of its 2016 world trade growth forecast to 1.7%. That would represent the lowest rate since the global financial crisis.

Several stocks are spurring the market to action this morning, including Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL), Casella Waste Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CWST),  CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSEMKT:CVM), and Edison International (NYSE:EIX). In this article, we’ll take a look at the news behind the movement in these stocks and see what successful hedge funds think of them.

We determine hedge fund sentiment by analyzing the equity portfolios of some of the best-performing hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive research, we have determined that the due diligence that these investors employ, as well as their long-term focus makes them perfect targets to emulate. However, the results of our analysis have also showed that the small-cap picks of these funds can generate much better returns, with the 15 most popular small-cap stocks beating the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see more details).

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Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) announced today that it will slash its headcount in Asia. The investment banking company has decided to take the step to curtail its expenses. Bank of America plans to cut about a dozen senior positions in the region for the second time this year. Investment banks are facing pressure from higher regulatory costs and a slowdown in many regional economies. Among the hedge funds that we track, 102 funds held $5.28 billion worth of Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)’s stock at the end of June, having amassed 3.90% of its outstanding stock, down from 110 investors with $5.52 billion worth of stock a quarter earlier.

Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) has gained nearly 4% today after it bumped its earnings guidance, reporting a 17% increase in fiscal third quarter profit. The company reported net income of $1.4 billion, up from the $1.2 billion that it earned for the same quarter of its previous fiscal year. Its adjusted earnings per share stood at $1.92, beating the FactSet consensus mark of $1.89. Carnival also increased its fiscal 2016 adjusted earnings per share guidance to a range of $3.33-to-$3.37, from the previous range of $3.25-to-$3.35. The number of funds in our database long Carnival Corp amounted to 31 at the end of June, with the total value of their holdings standing at $837 million. Those figures were well down from $1.42 billion in Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) positions being held by 48 funds at the end of March.

We have the latest on three more market movers on the next page.