Briefing.com: Stock Market Update – 09:45 ET
Feb 04, 2010 (Briefing.com via COMTEX) -- Stock Market Update
Updated: 04-Feb-10
The market at 09:45 ET
Dow: -121.75...
Nasdaq: -22.17... S&P: -14.46...
NYSE Vol: 113 mln.. Adv: 348.. Dec: 2345
Nasdaq Vol: 240 mln.. Adv: 535.. Dec: 1667
Moving the Market
Sector Watch
Cisco tops consensus earnings estimate; Visa also beats, but MasterCard misses Greenback gains ground amid news from WSJ that cost of insuring against budget defaults in Greece, Portugal, and Spain increased Weekly jobless claims numbers disappoint
Strong: (none with gains of at least 1%)
Weak: employment services; specialized finance; general merchandisers; autoparts and equipment; semiconductors; coal and consumable fuel; diversified metals; gold; steel; industrial REITs
09:45 ET
Dow -121.75 at 10148.80, Nasdaq -22.17 at 2168.74, S&P -14.46 at 1082.82
[BRIEFING.COM] Stiff selling pressure has taken all 10 major sectors into negative territory during the first few minutes of action. Losses are currently steepest in the energy sector (-1.9%) and the materials sector (-2.2%) as participants shun natural resource plays.
An earnings miss by Steel Dynamics (STLD 15.31, -0.61) has helped to fuel pressure against steel stocks (-4.2%), which are among the weakest issues in the materials sector.
Weakness in resource-linked stocks has been exacerbated by lower commodity prices. Specifically, gold is down 2.0% to $1089 per ounce, while oil prices are down 1.8% to $75.60 per barrel. In a broader measure, the CRB Commodity Index is down 1.0%.
09:15 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -8.90. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -11.50. Losses in overseas markets amid ongoing concerns about the fiscal health of European nations like Greece and Spain has imbued U.S. stock futures with weakness. Those concerns have sent safety-seekers into the dollar, which is up 0.4% to a fresh five-month high. That has only exacerbated pressure against stock futures in premarket trade. The mood among participants has been further undermined by higher-than-expected tallies for initial jobless claims and continuing jobless claims. Fourth quarter nonfarm productivity also climbed at a slower-than-expected clip. The negative headlines have overshadowed some strong same-store monthly sales results from retailers and another large batch of better-than-expected earnings, which have already had a hard time enticing buyers this earnings season.
09:00 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -8.40. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -11.30. U.S. stock futures continue to point to a markedly lower start. Selling pressure has already taken Europe's major bourses lower. The decision by the European Central Bank to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.00%, as expected, has done little to offer support. Most of the weakness has been hinged upon continued concerns about the fiscal health of eurozone countries like Greece, Portugal, and Spain. European banking giant Santander (STD) has been punished in conjuction with the news. Britain's banks are also under pressure as HSBC (HBC), Barclays (BCS), Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Lloyds Banking drag the FTSE to a 1.1% loss. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) is also under pressure after the company reported earnings that were down year-over-year. Meanwhile, Britain's central bank left its target rate unchanged at 0.5% and paused its asset purchase plan, as expected. In Germany, the DAX has fallen to a 1.0% loss. Despite weakness among other European bank shares, Deutsche Bank (DB) has managed to stage an advance after the company's Chief Execuitive stated the bank has had a promising start to 2010. In German economic news, AFP reported that German industrial orders slumped 2.3% in December after a 2.7% rise in November. France's CAC is currently down 1.2% as BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, ArcelorMittal (MT), and Total (TOT) lead losses. In Asia, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index shed 0.8%, while Japan's Nikkei erased 0.5%. Toyota Motor (TM) extended its slide. It said after the close that it expects a $2 billion hit due to recall issues. However, Honda Motor (HMC) climbed after it lifted its annual guidance above expectations. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.8% as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China handed back its gains from the previous session. Lenovo Group erased earlier losses to net a modest gain after it reported forecast-beating results. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3%.
08:35 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -8.00. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -9.30. Disappointing weekly jobless claims numbers have sent stock futures sharply lower. Specifically, initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 30 totaled 480,000, which is a larger tally than the 455,000 initial claims that had been widely expected and an increase from the 472,000 initial claims that had been registered in the prior week. Continuing claims remained steady week-over-week at 4.60 million, but that was still higher than the consensus call for 4.58 million continuing claims.
08:00 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -3.60. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -2.70. Stock futures presently point to a downward start as another raft of better-than-expected earnings results, including those of Cisco (CSCO) and Visa (V), is met with an underwhelming reaction. Part of the dour mood comes amid news that the financial woes of Greece have intensified. That has caused some safety trade that has helped the U.S. dollar climb 0.3% in an extension of its 0.5% gain from the previous session. The euro is particularly weak against the buck; the European Central Bank kept its benchmark lending rate at 1.00%, as expected. The preliminary read on nonfarm productivity for the fourth quarter is due at the bottom of the hour, along with the latest weekly jobless claims tally. Factory orders for December follow at 10:00 AM ET.
06:50 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] FTSE...5214.18...-38.90...-0.80%. DAX...5644.20...-27.90...-0.50%.
06:50 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] Nikkei...10355.98...-48.40...-0.50%. Hang Seng...20341.64...-380.40...-1.80%.
06:50 ET
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -4.20. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -5.80.
16:30 ET
Dow -26.30 at 10270.55, Nasdaq +0.85 at 2190.91, S&P -6.04 at 1097.28
[BRIEFING.COM] Support for large-cap tech helped the Nasdaq Composite recover from the red to finish flat, but weakness in the broader market left the S&P 500 to chop along in negative territory as participants looked past several positive headlines and strong gains by China's markets.
China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both booked gains in excess of 2% in their latest session as a couple of banks tightened lending in order to head off government mandates. However, neither those gains nor news that the ADP Employment Report showed a smaller-than-expected loss of 22,000 private sector jobs in January aroused support. An in-line reading of 50.5 for the January ISM Services Index was also dismissed.
Given the stock market's strong gains in the two previous sessions, buyers opted to take a break from this session's action. That's not to say that sellers reclaimed control, though; overall losses were contained.
Large-cap tech traded with strength and helped the tech sector net a 0.3% gain and the Nasdaq 100 finish the session 0.4% higher. The Nasdaq Composite finished flat as weakness among its other issues undermined its performance. Cisco (CSCO 23.07, +0.05) saw mixed interest ahead of its latest quarterly report. Still, that was an improvement from the 0.6% loss that it displayed at its session low.
Financials were particularly weak. They logged a loss of 1.4%, unable to rally around better-than-expected earnings from insurers Aflac (AFL 50.94, +1.24) and MetLife (MET 34.80, -1.57). Aflac was able to win itself support with an upside forecast, though.
Dow component Pfizer (PFE 18.62, -0.44) fell short of Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate. That encouraged pressure against other pharmaceutical stocks, which lost a collective 1.4%. The broader health care sector shed 1.1%.
Advancing Sectors: Tech (+0.3%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%)
Declining Sectors: Financials (-1.4%), Health Care (-1.1%), Materials (-1.0%), Telecom (-0.8%), Energy (-0.8%), Utilities (-0.8%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Industrials (-0.4%)
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