Stocks spent the bulk of Friday's regular session clawing higher after markets opened at their lows on the back of disappointing monthly jobs and factory orders data. Stocks were touched for sharp declines ahead of the opening bell after payrolls data showed that jobs outside the agriculture sector contracted 263,000 last month, deeper than Wall Street economists expected. The unemployment rate rose a tenth to a 26-year high of 9.8%, in line with Street estimates.
It was the 21st consecutive month of job losses. Since the recession began in December 2007, 7.2 million jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate has doubled, MarketWatch noted. In August, payrolls fell by a revised 201,000.
Next week, traders get a respite from economic data, but earnings season looms large as Alcoa (
AA) kicks off the latest batch of quarterly reports with its numbers on Wednesday. Costco (
COST) and Ruby Tuesday (RT) are also slated to post financials on Wednesday. Marriott International (
MAR) and PepsiCo (
PEP) are due with their results on Thursday.
In today's market, the disappointment from the jobs data was compounded by an unexpected drop in August factory orders. Orders fell 0.8%, worse than the 0.7% gain that economists had expected and posting the largest fall in five months.
Technology was a lone bright spot in Friday's trade, gaining strength from upgrades of bellwethers Apple (
AAPL) and Intel (
INTC). Apple scored a raised rating from UBS to Buy from Neutral while Intel was hiked by Oppenheimer to Outperform from Perform.
Crude closed the regular session down 1.2% at $69.70 a barrel.
DJIA down 21.61 (0.23%) to 9,487.67.
-S&P 500 down 4.64 (0.45%) to 1,025.21.
-Nasdaq down 9.37 (0.46%) to 2,048.11.
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
Hang Seng down 2.77%
Nikkei down 2.47%
FTSE down 1.17%
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) ETRM says EMPOWER study fails to meet primary and secondary endpoints.
(-) RTP gets downgrade.
(-) WAG turns lower despite a gain in same-store sales.
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) ACN turns higher despite disappointing with outlook.
(+) CIT announces restructuring.
(+) FSLR sees continued reaction to Thursday announcement it'll be added to S&P 500.
(+) AAPL gets analyst upgrade.
(+) ONCY inks process agreement with FDA for REOLYSIN.
(+) INTC edges higher following analyst upgrade.
