| CATEGORY: MARKET REPORT - US CLOSE |
US close: Higher ahead of jobs report |
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Thu 03 Sep 2009
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - Investors moved back into shares ahead of tomorrow's monthly non-farm payrolls with a surge in metals prices also buoying the miners.
Dow Jones closed up 63 at 9,344. Nasdaq added 16 at 1,983 while the S&P 500 gained 8 to 1,003.
Miners rallied as gold rose to $997 an ounce and looks set to hit the psychologically significant $1,000 level, but it is the jobs number tomorrow that took an increasing importance as the day worn on.
Expectations are for payrolls to have declined by between 223,000 and 230,000 in August, having contracted by 247,000 in July. The US unemployment rate is expected to rise to 9.5% from 9.4% in July.
First-time jobless claims fell to 570,000 last week from an upwardly revised 574,000 the week before. That was more than the 564,000 predicted by economists.
Continuing claims - those who’ve been out of work for more than a week - were up by 92,000 to 6.23m, more than the 6.12m expected.
There was also disappointment at figures showing the services sector still shrinking, with the Institute for Supply Management's services sector index for August up to 48.4 from 46.4 the previous month.
Although that’s the highest level in just under a year, any figure of less than 50 indicates contraction.
On the corporate news front, retailers dominated early proceedings. Warehouse membership firm Costco Wholesale was marked up despite like for like sales coming in 2% lower in August 2009 than a year ago; the market had been bracing itself for a 5.6% decline.
Fashion chain GAP was also on the up after August sales fell 3% year on year on a like for like basis, compared to expectations of a 6.7% dive.
Urban Outfitters, which sells housewares as well as clothes, headed higher after being upgraded to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ by SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
But there were losses for discounter Family Dollar Stores and preppie clothier Abercrombie & Fitch after disappointing August sales updates.
Family Dollar saw like for like sales rise 1% year on year, compared to expectations of 2.7%, while Abercrombie & Fitch’s like for like sales slumped 29%, versus expectations of a 24% fall.
Away from the retail sector, pharmaceuticals struggled. Merck, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson dominated the Dow fallers.
Elsewhere, network specialist Ciena raced higher after lower than expected third quarter losses. Loss per share was 5 cents, whereas analysts had pencilled in a loss of 14 cents per share.
Database software Oracle edged lower after its proposed acquisition of server provider and Java software creator Sun Microsystems was put in jeopardy by an investigation into the merger by the European Commission.
S&P 500 - Risers
American International Group Inc. (AIG) $41.78 +10.09%
Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) $29.58 +8.79%
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) $54.76 +8.11%
Gap Inc. (GPS) $21.18 +7.57%
Ford Motor Co (F) $7.51 +6.83%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Mcgraw Hill Cos (MHP) $29.01 -10.21%
Family Dollar Stores (FDO) $28.32 -8.62%
Moody's Corp. (MCO) $24.26 -7.05%
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) $30.83 -3.93%
Sara Lee Corp. (SLE) $9.32 -3.42%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $12.02 +4.07%
Bank Of America Corp. (BAC) $16.86 +3.63%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $45.05 +3.54%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $42.11 +3.06%
Du Pont E I De Nemours and Co. (DD) $31.63 +1.84%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $30.24 -1.85%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $16.08 -1.23%
AT&T Inc. (T) $25.15 -0.87%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $19.35 -0.63%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $25.26 -0.55%
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