YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Today's action was focused on the comments
from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.
During his press conference, Mr. Draghi failed to
announce new measures to help stem the European debt crisis. The S&P 500
quickly dropped to 1,360 and hovered around that level until the final hour of
the session. During the final 60 minutes stocks were able to recover a portion
of their losses, and the S&P 500 finished down 0.7%.
European indices were considerably higher ahead of the press conference before
sharply reversing into negative territory. Spain's IBEX plunged 5.2%, while
The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 365,000, which was
in-line with the 365,000 that had been expected. The tally is also up from the
upwardly revised prior week count of 357,000. As for continuing claims, they
fell to about 3.272 million from 3.291 million.
June Factory Orders showed a 0.5% decrease which was worse than the 0.6%
increase that had been expected.
Knight Capital Group
(KCG 2.58, -4.36) finished near session lows as yesterday's execution glitch is
said to have cost the firm $440 million in direct losses. Several firms have
indicated that they have used other systems to route their orders. With 155
million shares traded, volume in the stock has been more than 100 times the
average daily volume of 1.2 million.
First Solar (FSLR 17.93, +3.13) surged
21% after the company handily beat earnings and revenue estimates. Today's jump
lifted the stock past resistance near $16.60 which had held since mid-May.
Abercrombie & Fitch
(ANF 29.06, -4.96) dropped 14.6% after issuing disappointing guidance. Lower
sales expectations spilled over to competitor Aeropostale (ARO 13.08, -6.37) whose shares fell
32.8% on heavy volume.
Gap (GPS 33.17, +3.75) was able
to buck the trend. Shares advanced 12.8% after the retailer reported
better-than-expected same store sales and improved its second quarter outlook.
Given their European exposure, financial stocks have felt the brunt of today's
selling. The SPDR Financial Select Sector
ETF (XLF 14.48, -0.11) slid 0.8%. Morgan Stanley
(MS 13.03, -0.48) was down 3.5%.
European financials were hit especially hard with Deutsche Bank (DB 28.35, -1.45) and Barclays (BCS 10.05, -0.38) lower by 4.9% and 3.6%
respectively.
The euro saw volatile trading around the Mario Draghi
press conference. The single currency rose to 1.2365 versus the dollar in
anticipation of the bank president's comments. The euro tumbled to 1.2210 after
Mr. Draghi failed to offer fresh plans to solve the
region's debt crisis. Following a brief pause, it fell further, touching
1.2170.
Crude oil brushed a session low of $86.92 per barrel as equity markets opened
before recovering some of its losses in morning action. Crude managed to trade
up to a session high of $88.48 but was unable to sustain the momentum and
eventually settled down 2.0% at $87.20.
More than 100 companies will report their quarterly results after the bell.
Energy components EOG Resources
(EOG 96.12, -4.32) and Sunoco
(SUN 47.37, -0.81) saw respective losses of 4.3% and 1.7% ahead of their
results.
Shares of Kraft Foods
(KFT 38.94, -0.45) saw a steady rise but were unable to push through resistance
in the $40.00 area. The company's earnings are due out after the bell with
Investors expecting $0.66 in earnings on $14.1 billion revenues.
LinkedIn (LNKD 93.51, -2.13) is also
scheduled to report today. Estimates call for earnings of $0.16 on revenues of
$215.97 million.
Crude oil spent its entire pit session in the red as the dollar
gained strength on President Draghi's comments that
fell short of expectations for further action from the ECB to support
Natural gas tanked following weak inventory data that showed a build of 28 bcf when a build of 20 bcf was
widely expected. It continued the decline for the remainder of pit trade and
closed at $2.92 per MMBtu, just above its session low
of $2.91 per MMBtu, for a 7.9% loss. Today's session
is the first time that natural gas for September delivery has settled below
$3.00 per MMBtu since July 19, 2012.
Gold and silver popped to their respective pit session highs in morning action
on ECB's announcement that it is leaving rates
unchanged at 0.75% as expected. However, the sentiment wore off quickly and
both metals plunged into negative territory following the rally in the dollar.
Gold fell to a session low of $1586.30 per ounce and settled slightly higher at
$1590.50 per ounce for a loss of 1.0%. Silver's decline was sharper as it slid
as low as $26.88 per ounce and closed 1.9% lower at $26.99 per ounce.
Nonfarm payrolls, nonfarm private payrolls, unemployment rate, hourly earnings,
and average workweek will be released tomorrow at 8:30 AM ET.DJ30 -92.18 NASDAQ
-10.44 SP500 -10.32 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1031/1.79
bln/1418 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1147/826.1 mln/1897