Stock Traders Beat Up Markets After Jobs Data

It was one of the worst pre-July 4th holiday trading sessions in the history of the stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 223 points or 2.63% in what was a very broad based decline. For a significant portion of the trading day all 30 of the Dow components were in the negative. The technology heavy Nasdaq lost nearly 50 points or 2.67% as well and the broadest measure of the three, the S & p 500 Index was off 26.91 points or 2.91%. A large amount of the selling was attributed to the worse than expected non farm payroll report released this morning.

The employment situation report contains the unemployment rate, nonfarm payrolls and wage information. The report as a whole was mostly in line with the low end of expectations, however payrolls came in at -467,000 well off the largest estimates of -435,000 and a substantial miss from the median consensus estimates of -350,000. The unemployment rate came in slightly better than consensus at 9.5%. Also initial jobless claims were better than expected neither of which helped the markets as they continued to focus on the payrolls throughout the day.

This week Citigroup was again in the headlines when it decided to piss people off in several new ways. With the government adding new restrictions on employee bonuses the bank decided to raise salaries, some up to 50%, in order to retain people they consider "key employees". In a totally unrelated press release Citi said it would be raising rates on the credit cards of up to 15 million customers. Citigroup was among the biggest recipients of federal aid receiving more than $45 billion in TARP funds. Since 2006 their stock has tumbled 95% and over the last six quarters they have lost close to $36 billion.

Another very unpopular company was in the news this week, American International Group or AIG effected a 1 for 20 reverse stock split on Wednesday. The measure was overwhelmingly approved by shareholders, but the stock fell over 22% on the day. Before the split the stock was trading at $1.16 per share on Tuesday, but was down more than 20% in the pre-market on Wednesday and closed the day at $18.08 per share. Executives said the move was necessary to prevent the stock from being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. In a strange coincidence the NYSE erroneously posted a suspension and delisting notice of AIG on the NYSE's website, the notice was removed once the error was discovered.

Overall the stock markets have turned decidedly negative for the week and it was one of the worst first weeks of July in the history of the markets. For next week earnings should be the driving factor for stocks. Alcoa reports its earnings on Tuesday which traditionally kicks off earnings season. Chevron, 3com, Progressive Corp among others all report their earnings as well. Next week is pretty light on economic data releases the most important ones to watch are jobless claims on Thursday and Consumer Sentiment on Friday.

Stock Markets Determined To Trade Sideways

Stock markets on Wednesday traded marginally higher before giving up about half the gains heading into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 57 points or 0.68% to close at 8504.06, the Standard and Poors 500 Index closed up just over 4 points or 0.44% to end the day at 923.33 and the Nasdaq day gained 10.68 points or 0.58% finishing the session at 1845.72.

General Mills, the maker of Cheerios brand and other cereals and snack products reported earnings for their fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal 2009 before the bell this morning. For the fiscal year of 2009 net sales were us 8 percent to $14.7 billion and earnings per share excluding special items rose 13 percent to $3.98, well above analysts consensus estimates. For the fourth quarter '09 net income was $358.8 million or $1.07 per share, above the estimated .81 cents per share. The stock finished the day up 2.16 or 3.86% to close at 58.18 per share. The stock has been on a consistent climb since hitting March lows of around $46, but is still well off of its 52 week high of $72 per share set last September.

Constellation Brands, the largest wine company in the world, announced its fiscal first quarter 2010 results this morning. The company reporting net income of $6.5 million or 3 cents per share well off of its $44.6 million profit in the same quarter a year ago. The companies stock was higher on the day by 7.33% up to 13.61 per share after the company reiterated its profit outlook for the full fiscal year. "We are generally pleased with our quarterly results, which were in-line with our expectations," said Robert Sands President and CEO in the earnings press release, "we took steps over the past 18 months to shift the focus of our strategy to building must-have brands that return the greatest profits and that represent good value for consumers." The full press release is available on their website.

Today the ADP employment report was released and missed expectations. The report came in with 473,000 jobs lost during the month of June, this was much higher than analyst estimates of 394,000. The report showed the rate of job cuts slowed slightly from Mays 485,000 number, but was still a sign that the recession may drag out longer than people had hoped. The ISM Manufacturing number, a survey of over three hundred manufacturing firms on different aspects of their business, was released on Wednesday and came in at 44.8. This was the highest reading for the Index since last August and slightly higher than the average estimates of analysts of 44.5.

Motor vehicle sales for June were also reported by major automakers on Wednesday afternoon. Ford (F) had its smallest drop this year with sales falling 11% last month. On the other hand Chrysler had a 42% drop in auto sales, Toyota (TM) reported a 32% fall and Nissan (NSANY) had a 23% dip in the month of June. Despite those numbers Ford (F) shares were down 2.6% on the day, while Toyota and Nissan posted only modest declines of 0.3% and 0.6%.

Software company LogMeIn went public today in an uncertain ipo market and was trading higher throughout the day. The company makes on demand remote connectivity solutions for small and medium size businesses. The offering was for 6,666,667 shares of common stock and was priced at $16 per share, which was the high end of the range. LogMeIn (LOGM) expects to make $107 million on the offering which was trading above the $20 per share level in early afternoon action. The book managers for the offering were JP Morgan Securities and Barclays Capital Inc.

Tomorrow is the now much anticipated release of the initial jobless claims report. After the ADP report negative surprise no doubt analysts are revising their estimates. The initial jobless claims is a weekly report put out by the US Department of Labor on the number of individuals filing for unemployment for the first time. The consensus estimates on Wall Street were for 620,000 new applicants. I expect this number to be higher around 625,000-626,000. Several small companies will be reporting earnings tomorrow Methode Electronics, Inc. symbol MEI estimate -0.16, Acuity Brands, Inc. symbol AYI estimate 0.57, MSC Industrial Direct Co. symbol MSM estimate 0.38 symbol MSCI Inc. symbol MXB estimate 0.24 per share. The earnings releases should not have any effect on the overall markets or the individual company sectors.