Market Wrap: Facebook Skips Nose, Picks Market; Walgreen's Pain Pill Investigation; Initial Claims Drop Again


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April 5, 2012 5:19 PM EDT Send to a Friend
Market wrap-up for April 5th

End of the Day: Dow Jones down 14.6 to 13,060.14; Nasdaq up 12.4 to 3,080.50; S&P 500 down 0.9 to 1,398.08

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • The name is bonds. Spanish bonds: Yields on Spanish bonds continued to slip Thursday, this time with the 10-year bonds moving 15 basis points to 5.81 percent. Investors flocked to safer German Bunds, sending those yields to the lowest point since last November.

    The next Spanish auction is slated for April 19th.

  • How much is an "unusual amount" anyway?: Earlier in the session, it was reported the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) searched six Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) pharmacies in Florida. The investigation is into whether Walgreen had unusually high sales of pain pills like oxycodone -- which means the same pills might be making it to the black market.

    The probe is a regulatory one, not criminal.

    One Walgreen distribution center in Jupiter, FL is also being probed, and if discrepancies are found, there could be wider impact on Walgreen's operations.

  • Mac Attack!: According to data from antivirus software maker Doctor Web, about 600,000 Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Mac computers were found to have been affected by a hacking attack. The attack was on computers running Apple's Mac OS X operating system.

    Amid the warnings, Dr. Web said Apple already issued a fix to the problem and computers who download the fix should be okay. Shares of Apple may have flinched on the news, but rebounded nicely.

  • Someone in Las Vegas just lost a bet: Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) opted to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market according to reports out of the New York Times late Thursday. Though Facebook has yet to confirm the news with an amended S-1 filing, the move makes the most sense as the Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) is generally the clear choice for tech giants, having about twice as many tech companies as the NYSE (NYSE: NYX).

  • Setting up nicely for nonfarm numbers: According to data from the Labor Department Thursday, initial claims dipped 6,000 to 357,000 for the week ended March 31st. Economists were expecting a slightly lower number at 355,000. The prior week reading was revised higher from an initial 359,000 to 363,000.

    Continuing claims dropped 16,000 to 3.34 million for the week ended March 24th. Those receiving extended benefits rose 17,000 to 3.26 million for the week ended March 17th.

    For more color on the report, click here. For Friday morning, the Street sees nonfarm payroll additions of about 200,000.
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