YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Although stocks closed lower by 0.9% today,
they finished the week less only about 0.6% below last Friday's close. After
trading substantially lower on the disappointing employment data this morning,
and drifting lower throughout the day, stocks managed so show some improvement
in the final hour.
The biggest factor in today's trade was the disappointing employment data. June
nonfarm payrolls came in at 80K vs. the 100K Briefing.com consensus. The
unemployment rate was reported at 8.2% vs. the 8.2% Briefing.com consensus.
Futures saw an immediate downside reaction to the weaker than expected data,
and recovery attempts since then have been limited.
In
Technology was the worst performing sector, down 1.5% vs. the broad market
decline of 0.9%, with the Informatica and Seagate
warnings weighing. Materials, Industrials and Energy also underperformed.
Defensive sectors such as Utilities and Staples outperformed, with losses of
0.1-0.2% on the day.
Overnight, Chinese stocks rose 1% on the central bank easing
there. However, outside of
European markets moved lower on the U.S. jobs data too, finishing with sizable
losses.
Looking back at the rest of the week, we'd note that it started with the return
of ‘Merger Monday' with 4 major deals announced. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 36.00, +0.05) announced it would acquire Amylin
(AMLN 30.07, +2.50) for $31.00/share in cash, representing an aggregate
purchase price of ~$5.3 bln and 10% premium to
Friday's closing price for AMLN. Dell
(DELL 12.56, -0.07) announced it would acquire Quest Software (QSFT 27.86, -0.02) for $28.00/share
confirming months of speculation, representing a slight premium to Friday's
closing price. Ingram Micro
(IM 17.01, -0.14) announced it will acquire Brightpoint Inc.
(CELL 8.89, +3.48) for $9.00/share representing a 66% premium to Friday's
closing price for CELL. Finally, Germany's Linde
Group will acquire Lincare Holdings (LNCR
41.36, +7.34) for $41.50/share in cash, which was a 22% premium to Friday's
close. The S&P inched out at 0.3% gain on Monday.
Tuesday there was an early close in the markets due to the Independence Day
holiday on Wednesday. The S&P managed to rise 0.6% following better than
expected report on factory orders in the
On Thursday, the S&P fell 0.5% despite three major central banks taking
action to help economic growth.
An advance by the dollar index and weak payroll data weighed
heavily on WTI crude oil during today's pit trading session. Crude extended its
overnight losses and brushed a session low of $84.16 per barrel as it headed
into the close. It settled the week 0.7% lower at $84.43 per barrel despite
strength earlier in the week in response to
Natural gas popped to a session high of $3.03 per MMBtu
following better-than-anticipated inventory data. However, it quickly dropped
back into negative territory and slid lower as the session progressed, dipping
as low as $2.75 per MMBtu. Today's decline of 5.4%
erased all of the gains from its previous sessions, such that natural gas
finished the week 1.4% lower at $2.78 per MMBtu.
Gold and silver briefly popped into positive territory and to their respective
pit session highs of $1610.60 per ounce and $27.74 per ounce following the
lackluster payroll data. However, the move was short lived as sellers reacted
to the stronger dollar.
Gold tumbled to a session low of $1576.40 per ounce and settled just above that
level, finishing the week 1.5% lower at $1578.70 per ounce. Silver touched a
session low of $26.91 per ounce as it headed into the close and settled at
$26.95 per ounce, or 2.6% below last week's closing price. Yesterday's central
bank easing in Europe and
Next week, the focus shifts to earnings season, with Alcoa (AA 8.66, -0.25) reporting results Monday
afternoon. Alcoa is down 3% this morning, after Nomura cut its Q2 earnings
estimates ahead of Monday's report, citing a weaker aluminum market.DJ30
-124.20 NASDAQ -38.79 SP500 -12.90 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 709/1.4 bln/1767 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec
987/596 mln/2033