Market briefing --- Matt (slow)
Latest job report --- Su (fast)
NYSE --- Julie (slow)
Nasdaq --- June (slow)
Welcome to “world financial report.” I am matt nesto. Let’s give you the numbers on wall street here today. The dow and the s&p s&p 500 both down .3 and .4 respectively on light volume. The nasdaq, the worst of the three, the story of the day with intel shares leading the semiconductors lowest. The nasdaq down 1.5%. There’s the volume -- Weekly tally, up five of six weeks for the dow and s&p 500, .6 over the past five days for the dow and .5% for the s&p. Nasdaq can’t get it going, 1% lower over the past five trading session. The bonds were weak today, the yield pushing up to 4.29% for the 10-year. The dollar celebrating the same thing that the bonds fell on, strength in the job market . The dollar was up against all three of the major rivals. The u.s. Labor department released the closely watched employment report for august, non-farm payrolls adding 144,000 workers, sloilts below the average economists’ estimate. The first acceleration in five months. Manufacturers, at the same time, added 22,000 jobs, the sixth gain in seven months. At the same time, the Unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, the lowest level in nearly three years. The latest jobs report takes on added significance on the presidential campaigned. Su keenan has the story.
>> president george w. Bush already using the latest data, saying today’s lower unemployment rate of 5.4% is below the average for the past three decades. The august payroll data widely viewed as a positive for the economy.
>> job creation of 144,000 jobs, we are seeing good, solid, steady growth. It may not be at the anticipated levels of some kind of hockey stick but we are seeing good growth and compared to last month, this is very good news for the u.s. Economy.
>> democratic challengeer john kerry says the bush administration is the first in history that has failed to create new jobs. His economic policy director says even with today’s agains, bush falls short of his predictions. Bank of tokyo-mitsubishi’s analyst says today’s upward revision to the prior data showing 200,000 jobs added in the past two months or total of 1.7 million since last august is a boost for bush.
>> the jobs number is very, very important. It is a key number for the market . It is a key number for the bush administration and for the reserve. A resumption of growth would be shown by a very robust number in jobs. You really can’t have a self-sustaining recovery in the economy without a strong jobs report.
>> american research group shows just under half of americans views the economy as worsening and 52% of registered voters disapprove of the way bush is handling it. Senator charles grassley says people do not yet see the positive trend.
>> even though we have all these positive trends of economic indices, still, the public has not accepted that. The president’s goal of Campaigning the next 60 days is to make sure that people understand that.
>> daiwa securities michael moran says the bush administration needs to focus on more than job creation in order to restore confidence.
>> we need the oil situation to straighten out, the middle east situation to settle down and once we’re past the election, there will be less uncertainty.
>> so far this year, the economy has gained, on average, 180,000 jobs a month.
>> thanks, su. The dow and s&p gained for five of six weeks. Julie hyman has this report from the big board.
>> despite losses in today’s session, the dow and s&p finished the week higher. The s&p was up .5% while the dow gained about .6%. I wanted to look at the biggest losers and winners of the week in terms of groups and individual stocks. We had energy and also the hotel and leisure stocks doing the best on the week. Energy stocks, as the oil price bounced around, finished the week higher. On the down side, Semiconductors, as one might expect, and media stocks doing poorly. In terms of individual movers, winn-dixie down more than 20% on speculation about the future of its business. On the upside, we had noble corporation representing energy stocks, benefiting, in part, by an upgrade from merrill lynch earlier in the week. Today, we had two competing elements on the session. We had the jobs report and on the other hand, the effect of intel cutting its forecast. From the jobs report we saw a lot of food and staple stocks doing well today, real estate stocks doing well today, benefiting as investors were positive on the jobs report. We also had employment services stocks doing well today, such as robert half international and manpower rising today. On the downside, we had the semiconductors, intel cutting its forecast and semiconductors, biggest decliners within the index today, down a whopping 6% and texas instruments out with its mid quarter update next week. I’m julie hyman.
>> the nasdaq ended lower. Intel leading decliners there. And june grasso has this report from the nasdaq marketsite in times square.
>> intel’s part of its revenue forecast was the weight on the nasdaq today and today intel closed at its lowest price since june of 2003. The pressure was on the Philadelphia semiconductor index because intel’s forecast for weakening demand for electronics coincides with comments from semiconductor makers worldwide questioning the health of the via. Leading the philadelphia Semiconductor index down, maxim integrated, k.l.a.-tencor, xilinx and linear technology. Today, 3com joined the chorus. Its switches run corporate data Networks and reports First-quarter sales of below Forecast.% It said in june that its revenue would be unchanged or slightly higher than the fourth quarter’s $183 million. Electronics for imaging which designs software and equipment for digital printers and copiers said third-quarter profit will be less than forecast as sales of its high-end printer management servers were below expectations. Profit in the third quarter would be 12 to 13 cents compared to analysts’ estimates of 26 cents. One stock that did do well was an internet security company, r.s.a. Security, on track to achieve third-quarter guidance. The maker of internet security products reiterated its third-quarter profit forecast of 10 to 12 cents a share. Kmart was among the top 10 performing members of the nasdaq 100 today. Sears roebuck buying 45 stores from kmart holdings for $524.5 million in cash. Those are the final details of a deal announced about two months ago. June grasso, bloomberg news, at the nasdaq marketsite.
>> a top money manager says he doesn’t expect returns on stocks to exceed mid single digits for the next decade. 10 years of that? My discussion of don ross of armada funds will be aired next.
