Your Morning Cup Of Coffee Will Cost You More — Here’s Why
Stocks are modestly higher
on a mixed bag
of economic data. The Nasdaq leads the major indices.Â
The revised figure for Q2 Productivity came in at 2.5% vs. consensus of 2.7%.
Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended August 28th rose by 19,000 to 362K.
Estimates were calling for claims to fall to 340K. However, jobless claims were
impacted by hurricane Charley. Factory Orders for July rose 1.3%, slightly
better the consensus of a 1.1% rise.
Same store sales for August rose 1.2% vs.
expectations of 2.2%. This was the smallest rise in 17-months. Retailers are
facing tougher challenges this year stemming from the likes of: higher energy
prices, Hurricane Charley, and the calendar shifting pushing Labor Day sales
into September. After lowering their same store sales forecast last week, the
nations largest retailer, Walmart [WMT|WMT} warned that its third quarter
results would be in the low end of its forecast. Despite this, the retail index
(
RLX.X |
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PowerRating) is the best performing sector today, up 1.34%.
Microsoft
(
MSFT |
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PowerRating) is fractionally
higher after the company opened its online music store, MSN
Music. In an effort to challenge Apple’s iTunes service, MSN Music will also
charge $0.99/song with more than 500,000 titles to choose from. Unlike iTunes,
where the songs can only be played back only on Apple’s iPod, songs downloaded
from MSN Music can be played back on more than 70 devices that supports the
Windows Media format. Shares of Apple
(
AAPL |
Quote |
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PowerRating) are down 2.5% today.Â
Intel [INTC}INTC] is set to give its
mid-quarter update after the close today. Tomorrow we will have the all
important jobs data for August.Â
For the first time in four years, Starbucks
(
SBUX |
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PowerRating) is raising prices. Although the company didn’t say how much prices
would rise, the last time the coffee retailer raised prices — August 2000 —
they went up by 2 to 3 percent on average. Last week, the company reported the
slowest same store sales in 14 months.Â
| Dow | +8.93 | 10177.39 |
| S&P 500 | +1.52 | 1107.43 |
| Nasdaq | +3.71 | 1854.12 |
Strong today are: Retail
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.34%, Internets
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.00%.
Weak are: Gold & Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.25%, Health Care
Providers
(
RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -0.62%.
10-year Notes are -090 at 113 105
The dollar
is +0.108 at 89
Gold is -2.40 at 406.40
Crude Oil is +0.90 at
44.90
Volume is 456 million on
the NYSE and 499 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is positive.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1790 | Up Vol 246 |
| Declining | 1289 | Down Vol 165 |
| Ratio | 1.39 | 1.49 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1391 | Up Vol 278 |
| Declining | 1419 | Down Vol 194 |
| Ratio | 0.98 | 1.43 |
Stocks in the News
Costco
(
COST |
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PowerRating)
reported August sales that missed estimates; the stock is trading down 3%
pre-open. Retail will be in focus as several companies — including WMT, S, BJ,
DDS, MAY, LTD, ANF and FDS — reported sluggish same store sales for August.
WalMart
(
WMT |
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PowerRating) cut its Q3 forecast.
American Eagle
(
AEOS |
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PowerRating) bucked the
retail trend, reporting a large increase in same store sales. The stock is
trading up pre-open.
Intel’s [INTC}INTC]
mid-quarter update is after the close.
The first of several lock up periods ends for Google
(
GOOG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Vincent Mao