No Surprises
A July employment report with no major inflationary surprises has the market
set to open modestly higher Friday, as the report gives Alan Greenspan & Co.
another batch of numbers to sort through ahead of the August 22 Federal Reserve
meeting.
The Dow futures are up 30 points, and the Nasdaq futures are up 37 points.
The S&Ps look to open up 6.50 points while the yield on the 10-year
Treasury has eased slightly to 5.93%.
The July employment report showed that the economy lost 108,000 jobs while
analysts had expected a gain of 71,000. The termination of census workers
accounted for the brunt of the decline, as the overall growth in private sector
jobs actually increased slightly. Unemployment remained unchanged at 4.0% which
was in line with estimates.
Average hourly wages, however, increased by 0.4%, which is slightly ahead of
the 0.3% increase the Street expected, but does not seem to be having a negative
impact on stocks.
Friday News
Insurance giant Aetna
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PowerRating) posted second quarter earnings of 94 cents
per share, beating First Call/Thomson Financial estimates of 88 cents per share.
Analysts had revised their estimates lower last month after Aetna issued a
profit warning in mid-July. Aetna closed Thursday up 1 to 58 5/16 but still
trades significantly below its pre-warning level of 70 1/2 on July 14.
TIBCO Software
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PowerRating) said it will collaborate with Mercator Software
(
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PowerRating)
to provide e-business solutions to businesses. Shares of Mercator closed
Thursday at 20 15/16 and are trading up to 21 1/4 in pre-market activity while
TIBCO is trading at 103, up 7/8 from Thursday’s close.
J.P.Morgan raised its rating on brokerage leader Goldman Sachs to a
‘buy” from “market perform.” Goldman Sachs has been rising
steadily along with the strong broker/dealer sector and closed Thursday up 3 1/2
to 105 5/8.
Thursday Update
The Walt Disney Company
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PowerRating) announced second quarter earnings of 30
cents per share, handily beating the 24 cents per share that analysts had
expected. Disney credited surging ad revenue for its popular millionaire quiz
show as the reason for the blowout earnings. Disney closed Thursday up 2 3/8 to
42 1/2 and is trading up more than a dollar on Instinet.
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