From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Despite plenty of trading catalysts, participants kept stocks confined to a relatively narrow trading range as they allowed the previous session's sell-off to consolidate in low-volume trade.
There weren't any widely-held companies making announcements this morning, so economic data dominated headlines. The ADP Employment Change Report for August topped the calendar, but its suggestion that 298,000 private jobs were lost last month proved disappointing since economists were expecting 250,000 job losses. Given the magnitude of the miss, many are wondering whether the current consensus forecast for 225,000 job losses in the government's official nonfarm payrolls report is too conservative. The official jobs report for August will be released Friday.
Concerns about job losses and the weakness of labor markets were expressed in the minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting, which concluded on Aug. 15.
The FOMC minutes also indicated that some of the committee members disagreed about whether slack in the economy will keep inflation low. At least for now, though, inflationary pressures remain in check. That was made evident by news that unit labor costs for the second quarter were down a sharp 5.9%, which was slightly steeper than what had been expected, while second quarter productivity spiked 6.6% in its sharpest percentage increase since 2003. The increase in productivity was slightly better than the 6.4% increase that was widely expected.
Factory orders made for July made their sharpest increase since June 2008 by climbing 1.3%, but that was still short of the 2.2% increase that had been generally expected. Despite the less-than-stellar batch of economic data, stocks spent nearly the entire session trading just a few points to either side of the neutral line before sliding a bit into the close.
Aside a rather weak close, the overall temperament of participants contrasted that of the previous session, when stocks were sent sharply lower following a bevy of generally upbeat reports. Trading volume wasn't what it was in the previous session, either. Some 1.6 billion shares traded hands in the NYSE on Wednesday, but 1.3 billion shares were exchanged this time around.
Action was largely listless this session, though materials stocks managed to sport solid gains for most of the session. Aside from a 0.2% advance by the consumer staples sector, materials stocks made up the only major sector in the S&P 500 to log a gain. They advanced 0.6% as metals and mining stocks followed a surge in gold prices.
Gold prices settled pit trading 2.3% higher at $978.50 per ounce, near its best level since June.
Oil prices weren't quite so fortunate. Early in the session oil prices pushed higher as they shrugged off weekly inventory data that showed a smaller-than-expected draw of 372,000 barrels. Oil actually made its way to roughly $68.70 per barrel, but finished flat at $68.05 per barrel.
Treasuries had a strong session. Helped by a subdued mood among equity traders and the FOMC minutes, the benchmark 10-year Note added 18 ticks, which pushed its yield below 3.3% for the first time since May.
There aren't any widely-held companies scheduled to make quarterly announcements tomorrow, but several retailers will be out with their latest same-store sales results. Still, most of the session's focus will be on the latest batch of economic data, which includes the latest jobless claims numbers and the August ISM Service Index. DJ30 -29.93 NASDAQ -1.82 NQ100 -0.1% R2K -0.4% SP400 -0.5% SP500 -3.29 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1266/2.00 bln/1386 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1159/1.38 bln/1836
4:01PM Agilent separates bio-analytical business into Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis Groups (A) 25.26 -0.64 : Co announces the separation of its Life Science and Chemical Analysis Group into two businesses, Chemical Analysis and Life Sciences. The change in structure reflects the growth opportunities of each business and supports Agilent's continued evolution as a leading bio-analytical company
5:03AM Tower Semiconductor raises Q3 revenue guidance (TSEM) 1.04 : Co expects Q3 revenue to exceed previous guidance given on August 12, 2009 due to increased customer demand. The co now expects Q3 revenue of $77.0-80.0 mln vs $61.1 mln single-analyst estimate.
09:21 am Research In Motion ests raised at AmTech on higher units/sub adds/lower margins: . AmTech expects a solid report and outlook from RIMM on 9/24. Firm raised its FY10/FY11 pro-forma ests to $4.30/$5.25 from $4.27/$5.20 ($4.13/$4.86 consensus) on higher units and subscriber additions and slightly lower margins. Firm forecasts August at the upper-end of the guided range driven by the Tour launch at VZ, continued momentum of Javelin and Gemini, and geographic expansion. Forecasts GAAP EPS of $1.01 on $3.7 bln vs guidance of $0.94-1.03 on $3.45-3.7 bln ($1.00/$3.6 bln consensus) based on 8.5 mln units, 4.0 mln subscriber additions and a 43.1% gross margin. Firm is looking for a seasonal build and the launch of Bold 2 and Storm 2 to drive November.
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