Top 10 News Items 11/29-12/03: Stocks Mark Gains Despite Scary Jobs Report; Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.8%; Eurozone Fears Continue, Intensify
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Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. Despite falling on both Monday and Tuesday (down about 0.7% from last Friday's close), stocks finished the week on a very strong note. The S&P 500 rallied about 2.8% over the week, but by more than 4% from the lows set on Monday. The index rose 26 points on Wednesday, and another 15 points on Thursday. The real surprise, however, came on Friday when, despite what was some of the worst data the Street has received in a while (a very weak employment report), stocks held in there. The Dow Jones closed Friday's session up about 17 points, the Nasdaq was up more than 12 points, and the S&P 500 was up about 3 points.
2. On Friday the Labor Department showed that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in November with the unemployment rate rising to the highest level since April, 9.8%. Nonfarm payrolls rose 39,000 last month, well below the 150,000 jobs economists had been expecting. Private sector payrolls were up 50,000 workers, and manufacturing payrolls fell 13,000. The Street had been looking for a 160,000 job gain on the private number, and a 5,000 job decline for manufacturing. The unemployment rate rose from 9.6% to 9.8%.
3. Debt contagion in the Eurozone continued this week, with the S&P placing both Portugal and Greece on CreditWatch Negative. Fears related to Portugal, and to a lesser extent Spain, were seen earlier this week, while concerns on Greece were sparked on Thursday.
4. Shares were volatile during Tuesday's trading session as concerns related to Portugal weighed on the minds of investors. Remarks from President Obama, however, brought stocks into positive territory although they closed lower. Obama suggested that he would be willing to compromise with Republicans in regard to extending Bush's tax cuts.
5. The Federal Reserve issued details of the transactions conducted in order to stabilize the financial markets during the crisis this week. Although numerous large institutions used a number of the Fed's tools during this period, BofA (NYSE: BAC) stuck out, using the Primary Dealer Credit Facility more than 1,000 times in about nine months.
6. Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) fell to as low as $10.91 this week as traders speculated that the bank could be the next target of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks. BofA shares have not been below $11 since early-2009.
7. Seagate (NYSE: STX) announced that its Board terminated talks with private-equity firms related to a going-private deal, saying that the indications of valuation laid out by firms were not in the best interest of shareholders. Despite the news, shares of Seagate held up this week. The stock closed this week about 7% higher than last Friday's close.
8. Shares of Russia's Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) rallied nearly 28% on Thursday of this week following news that Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) will take a 66% stake in the company, paying about $33 per share. The deal is being valued at around $3.8 billion.
9. In the Housing sector, the Street got several data points this week: S&P/CaseShiller for September came in down about 0.8% to 147.49 and pending home sales for October rose 10.4%, much better than the 1% decline economists had been expecting. The XHB (NYSE: XHB) rose nearly 8% this week.
10. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) shares sold-off by more than 4% this week following several news items. First, reports on Tuesday that the search-giant was being investigated by the EU in regards to allegations that the company has discriminated against competing services in its search results and has not allowed certain websites from accepting rival ads. Later that day, rumors that Google could buy Groupon for as much as $6 billion began hitting the wires.
1. Despite falling on both Monday and Tuesday (down about 0.7% from last Friday's close), stocks finished the week on a very strong note. The S&P 500 rallied about 2.8% over the week, but by more than 4% from the lows set on Monday. The index rose 26 points on Wednesday, and another 15 points on Thursday. The real surprise, however, came on Friday when, despite what was some of the worst data the Street has received in a while (a very weak employment report), stocks held in there. The Dow Jones closed Friday's session up about 17 points, the Nasdaq was up more than 12 points, and the S&P 500 was up about 3 points.
2. On Friday the Labor Department showed that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in November with the unemployment rate rising to the highest level since April, 9.8%. Nonfarm payrolls rose 39,000 last month, well below the 150,000 jobs economists had been expecting. Private sector payrolls were up 50,000 workers, and manufacturing payrolls fell 13,000. The Street had been looking for a 160,000 job gain on the private number, and a 5,000 job decline for manufacturing. The unemployment rate rose from 9.6% to 9.8%.
3. Debt contagion in the Eurozone continued this week, with the S&P placing both Portugal and Greece on CreditWatch Negative. Fears related to Portugal, and to a lesser extent Spain, were seen earlier this week, while concerns on Greece were sparked on Thursday.
4. Shares were volatile during Tuesday's trading session as concerns related to Portugal weighed on the minds of investors. Remarks from President Obama, however, brought stocks into positive territory although they closed lower. Obama suggested that he would be willing to compromise with Republicans in regard to extending Bush's tax cuts.
5. The Federal Reserve issued details of the transactions conducted in order to stabilize the financial markets during the crisis this week. Although numerous large institutions used a number of the Fed's tools during this period, BofA (NYSE: BAC) stuck out, using the Primary Dealer Credit Facility more than 1,000 times in about nine months.
6. Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) fell to as low as $10.91 this week as traders speculated that the bank could be the next target of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks. BofA shares have not been below $11 since early-2009.
7. Seagate (NYSE: STX) announced that its Board terminated talks with private-equity firms related to a going-private deal, saying that the indications of valuation laid out by firms were not in the best interest of shareholders. Despite the news, shares of Seagate held up this week. The stock closed this week about 7% higher than last Friday's close.
8. Shares of Russia's Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) rallied nearly 28% on Thursday of this week following news that Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) will take a 66% stake in the company, paying about $33 per share. The deal is being valued at around $3.8 billion.
9. In the Housing sector, the Street got several data points this week: S&P/CaseShiller for September came in down about 0.8% to 147.49 and pending home sales for October rose 10.4%, much better than the 1% decline economists had been expecting. The XHB (NYSE: XHB) rose nearly 8% this week.
10. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) shares sold-off by more than 4% this week following several news items. First, reports on Tuesday that the search-giant was being investigated by the EU in regards to allegations that the company has discriminated against competing services in its search results and has not allowed certain websites from accepting rival ads. Later that day, rumors that Google could buy Groupon for as much as $6 billion began hitting the wires.
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